Dissection SOS
by FantasyForever310
Summary: Stein's new class, Dissection: Science of Scars, contains all the promising young DWMA students. Might it have anything to do with Stein's latest secret experiment on how weapons transform? Will anyone learn what this crafty scientist has planned? Be prepared for gritty science, weapon-meister vs. pre-kishin battles, crazy schemes, romance, and lots of sarcastic humor!
1. Late Night Experiments

Dissection SOS (Science Of Scars)

Chapter 1: Late Night Experiments

Stein pushed aside the loopy cords of Spirit's intestines, enjoying the warmth that only came from the touch of another person's body. As usual, the guts were the warmest part. Stein pulled some muscles to test their elasticity. Giggling like a little girl on Christmas, he poked at Spirit's spinal cord. He watched interestedly at the way the partially dismembered Spirit thrashed.

"Unconscious reactions…" he turned on his Soul Perception and he watched Spirit's soul mimic his body. It brought to mind a particularly aggravating fast upbeat pop song students had taken to blasting from their phones. Spirit's soul was somehow doing a rather apt dance for the song, flaring out in pain at all the right times. He even kept it up when Stein started stroking his spinal column off the beat. Spirit didn't used to be so good at dancing, in body or soul. Maybe Stein's experiments were paying off. If he'd been this flexible a few years ago, Kami might have stuck around, Stein mentally joked.

Crrrick. The pleasurable feeling of the screw mixing around the gray matter between his ears took the evil smirk off his face. He'd congratulated himself on managing not to dissect the aforementioned students by giving Spirit a type of coffee Marie had sent Stein as a birthday present. Spirit had known this, so he accepted the drink. Spirit never considered the possibility that Stein might have, added a little, well, _tasty addition_ to it. Sucked for him.

Coming out of his reverie, Stein muttered, "Hmm, to turn living flesh into sentient metal…" Figuring out how weapons were able to transform was proving harder than he'd thought. Maybe there was something special in the protein making up weapons' DNA? It would be an interesting theory to test. He'd just have to have Spirit over for a dinner of raw meat (full of protein) and a cup of Miss Marie's _lovely_ coffee.

Stein sewed Spirit up again after taking a blood sample from his life-sized living Death Scythe doll. Snickering, he labeled the test tube and put it in the next opening in Spirit's latest crate of blood samples, that, naturally, he knew nothing about. Stein intended to keep it that way.

On an afterthought, Stein took a dropper full of concentrated alcohol and dripped some down his former partner's throat. No one would bother disputing Stein's story of Spirit having returned after a few too many glasses and passed out at his Sempai's place. If Spirit somehow developed the presence of mind (unlikely, Stein thought) to ask around at Chupacabra, they would only recall being too drunk to remember well enough.

It really was too bad for Spirit that Stein was careful, and knew how to hide his tracks. Shinigami-sama was the only one who ever discovered any of Stein's secret experiments. Unfortunately for the residents of Death City, Lord Death was supporting him on this project Stein thought happily. If he slipped in an extra live specimen or two that might or might not be for this experiment, Shinigami-sama never called him out on it.

"Die Die Kill Kill" the mirror from Stein's office sang. Stein stepped out of his first laboratory (the only one that wasn't secret. The others all had special hidden entrances) and into the office. The mirror above his desk glowed and Shinigami-sama twirled into view. Stein dropped into his chair and twisted his screw. His chair shot towards the desk. Crrrick. Twisting his screw, Stein spoke to the bouncing masked Death God in the mirror.

"Calling this late, would you care for a drink?" Stein asked, smiling creepily.

"Even I wouldn't dare," was the dry response.

"That's a shame. Well, Shinigami-sama, the research is going well,"

"In other words, you're using Spirit again. Does he know it?"

Crrrick. "No, and I'd appreciate you not telling him. Especially about the coffee…"

An eyebrow was raised, "Let me guess. You don't want me to tell him because 'it would greatly delay the results of the experiment' right?"

Stein smirked, "You're as perceptive as ever, I see," Stein knew Shinigami-sama understood that Stein enjoyed using Spirit in his experiments, usually as 'the control' in most of them. Shinigami-sama also knew Stein would make up any legitimate-sounding response if it would let him keep experimenting on Spirit.

From his sigh, Stein could tell Shinigami-sama was rolling his eyes. He shook his head at Stein, saying, "Just put him back together again. I may need him soon, with all the chaos going on!"

"Don't I always?" Stein replied glibly.

After another sigh/eyeroll the Death God said, "The real reason I called you was because your, ah, _lesson plan_ for tomorrow arrived,"

"Ah, perfect," Stein said, drawing out the last word like a cat. His smile became genuine. Genuinely creepy, that is.

"Stein, those poor animals are endangered-"

"All the more reason to study them while they're still around-"

"Then at least limit how many you dissect per week!"

Stein grinned. Shinigami-sama sweat dropped.

"Well, we'll talk about this later. Good night," Shinigami-sama muttered uncomfortably and the mirror faded back into its normal reflective image.

"Tomorrow, eh? Stupid kids." Stein muttered as he maneuvered his chair along the pathways he'd made for his chair in his house. It really was late. Stein was just beginning to feel tired as his chair moved up ramp (that served as stairs in Stein's house, partially for security, partially for his chair).

Maybe his lesson plan could include a few extracurricular lessons that would give him opportunities to experi-ahem, _preform life-saving operations_ on the students. There were ways and ways of doing that. The chair hit a huge anatomy textbook on the floor next to his bed, catapulting him onto his bed. Stein sighed happily. Thank goodness for Newton's laws. Though, it's not like I'd want to live to enjoy them without my beloved dissection projects_, _Stein thought as he drifted off to sleep.


	2. Weaknesses

Dissection SOS

Chapter 2: Weaknesses

On his way to school the next morning, Stein dropped a very confused Spirit off at his house. "Stein, I don't remember this scar. When I was drunk, did you-"

"Oh, please. That one was from a while ago. Back before you met Kami," Stein brushed off the death scythe's worries. He glanced back on his way out the door to see Spirit tearing up at the thought of his ex-wife.

"K-kami! M-maaakkaaaaaaa!" Spirit howled in misery. Pathetic, Stein thought as he rolled his eyes. When he reached the steps up to the DWMA, he noticed with no small amount of amusement that Kid was standing on the very highest step, gazing lovingly up at the architecture above him.

"So, just so symmetrical!" Kid said with reverence. "Oh lovely Shibusen, how symmetrical you are,"

Stein noticed Liz rolling her eyes as Patty whispered; "Maybe he loves school so much because it's symmetrical, and he's not,"

The girl had forgotten Kid's reaper hearing. He paled and fell to his knees. "Y-you're right, Patty. I'm garbage. Asymmetrical GARBAGE!" Well, Stein thought, there are ways and ways to fix that, as his hand twitched longingly towards the scalpel in his coat pocket.

Once he'd picked up his frightened lesson plan in a box from the storage room, then bell began to ring. He grinned. He liked this part of the day. To cut through the throng of rushing students, he'd devised a mechanism for his chair to go all around the DWMA. He hopped in and shot off towards his classroom, bowling kids over with glee.

The classroom door was open, and Stein was almost inside when a wheel caught on the doorsill. He pitched forward cursing. Blasted Shinigami! Every time he removed that long piece of tile, it'd get put back within the week. Grinding his teeth in frustration he picked his lesson plan up off the floor and hoisted it onto the lab table up front.

He was so annoyed he didn't bother to start class. He just opened the box and started plucking feathers. The entire class sweat dropped at his expression and ferocity: the poor bird wasn't even sedated. Of course, that didn't bother Stein in the slightest.

A loud voice pulled Stein out of his happiness. "THE MAN WHO WILL SURPASS GOD DOESN'T NEED LESSONS! LET'S GO DO A JOB TSUBAKI!" The loud and hyper assassin shouted.

Tsubaki tried to calm her flamboyant partner to no avail. "Black*star, we have to stay for our lessons!" Quickly seeing the futility of that line of reasoning, she tried another tactic. "Don't you want to learn how to gut your opponent better?" her sweet voice saying such things with a calm face had everyone cringing. Stein just laughed.

"TSUBAKI, WE'RE NOT GONNA LEARN ANYTHING IN HERE! HE HASN'T EVEN ADDRESSED THE CLASS YET!" Black*star responded.

Stein's mirth faded and he palmed a pair of dissecting scissors. The pair just wouldn't shut up, even when Stein glared at them. They didn't notice. Everyone else did though, and backed away from the arguing couple. Black*star and Tsubaki did notice when the scissors thudded into the desk above Black*star, an inch from his face. His pupils shrunk to specs and he gulped.

Black*star's face twisted in anger and his turned to yell at Stein when Tsubaki tugged on his arm. The assassin looked down at his weapon and saw her pale, worried face and frowned. The assassin must have realized the sense in sitting down, and for once, did so relatively quietly.

Once things had settled down a bit, and the bird's belly was entirely featherless, Stein looked up at the class. "Most of you have been in one of my classes before. All of you will be facing harder opponents than ever, this semester, and will therefore need some new fighting technics. The best way to defeat an opponent is to learn its weaknesses,"

Stein heard a murmurs in the crowd, "Weaknesses have nothing to do with dissection," and "I don't want to dissect anything!"

"Class," Stein said quietly, menace lacing his voice as he held up a big knife. Everyone fell silent, attention on him and the blade he held. They'd all seen Stein had no qualms about throwing lethal objects at students. At least they had that much sense.

"There are two kinds of weaknesses: mental and physical. Most of you deal with mental weakness when you have trouble resonating with your partner or your group. Or when you're scared of your opponent and try to run the other way," Stein glanced meaningfully at Liz.

"Other classes help you to defeat those weaknesses. This class deals with other weaknesses. Physical weakness can be anything from a previous injury to the poor range of movement of a hinge joint,"

Already, Stein could see, half the class didn't understand what he was saying. He'd have to dumb it down for them he supposed. Again.

"Knowing your opponents weaknesses can help you defeat them quickly, with minimal harm to yourself. Knowing your own weaknesses, and those of your partner, can help you keep yourself alive on the battlefield. If your opponent knows your weaknesses, it is even more important to know your own, so you can protect your weakest points,"

Soul yawned and was sent a death glare. Maka nudged Soul to keep Stein from taking more drastic action. With the machete in his hand, for example.

"Learning about internal weaknesses is usually done in two parts: studying anatomy, and attempting dissection for first-hand experience of what you study. Also, since you'll be facing opponents of all shapes and sizes, you'll need to study all kinds of different anatomical structures and be able to recognize them with a glance,"

Groans came from around the room, but since he was almost finished, Stein continued with his speech. As soon as he finished, he reminded himself, he could go on with his favorite part of this lesson plan.

"Dissection is a delicate science, but it can be powerful. For example, if I cut Kid so he has a diagonal scar on one arm, but a horizontal scar on the other arm, I will have inflicted enormous mental damage as well, rendering him incapable of fighting back,"

Everyone chuckled at Kid's horrified face.

"Thus, dissection is the science of scars. Inflicting and defending potential scars is what this class is all about. Welcome to Dissection Science Of Scars. I prefer to call it Dissection S.O.S. Open you textbooks and read chapter one. Tomorrow, we'll begin the dissection of the animals shown in that chapter," he finished abruptly, wanting to get back to dissecting the bird.

Stein ran his hand over the warm belly of the live endangered bird. Putting down the machete, he picked up his favorite scalpel and cut through the layers of fat. He peeled away the outer layer of skin and took a sample of the outermost fat layer for later analysis. He was so busy writing down the rate of blood flow from the hole in the bird's stomach he almost didn't catch the loud sarcastic remark.

The crimson-eyed boy had probably thought Stein would be too absorbed in his dissection to notice, or maybe he thought being reckless like that was cool. Stein didn't know, but he did hear the scythe say, "Science of Scars? More like Save Our Souls!" there was a decent amount of appreciative laughter.

Soul glanced down at Stein, smirking to show his pride in his little rebellion. Stein matched that smirk and said loudly, "Indeed Soul, perhaps your souls will need saving, before you all finish this class…"

The students' sub-consciousnesses must have picked up on the note of truth in Stein's voice, because they all fell silent, leaving Stein to enjoy his lesson plan for the rest of the class period.

**I'll do my best to update this about once a week, probably every Sunday. **

**No, I don't hate Kid (he's actually one of my favorite characters), and I'll give him some cool action scenes later. I figured Stein probably thinks of Kid as kind of pathetic for his OCD, so I wrote it according to that. **

**Thanks to my best friend for letting me use her Save Our Souls joke!**

**Thanks to everyone who favorited, followed, reviewed, and read Dissection SOS!**

**Lialane Graest: Here it is, enjoy! **

**Until next week, then…**


	3. Dreaming Rocks and Flames

Dissection SOS

Chapter 3: Dreaming Rocks and Flames

**The combination of a scooter wreck and my school's Homecoming kind of got in the way of last week's update… To compensate, I made an extra long chapter, almost 2,000 words! Enjoy!**

The students filed out of his class, happy to leave the decimated bodies they'd been working on behind. Stein walked around the room with a clipboard, examining the quality of the dissection. Blackstar got a zero for splashing guts all around his chair. Tsubaki however, had correctly opened the cat and examined its joints. Further along, he smiled at Kid's symmetrical perfection with the dissection. Stein considered giving him an 88 just to reward a job well done, but Stein would be the first to admit he liked to watch the students squirm. And making a Death God squirm was particularly fun. Stein chuckled and gave Kid a 97.

The grades finished, he dumped the desecrated bodies out the window Shinigami-sama had thoughtfully to put there. Stein grabbed the file with his research for today and headed out. In the hallway, Spirit ran up to him, and fell to his knees in front of his former partner.

"Why do you have to take Maka to that dangerous place?!" the distressed father asked. Stein looked contemptuously at the Death Scythe.

"She _is_ training to be a meister," thinking of something, Stein decided to touch a nerve with words rather than a scalpel for once, "Besides, would you deny that weapon of hers a chance to get hurt, or maybe even, die?"

An uncomfortable silence followed as Spirit refused to acknowledge his seething dislike for the boy. Yet, Stein could see in his face how little Soul's death would bother Spirit.

Though Stein himself tended to dislike the rebellious white-haired boy, he had seen Soul's devotion to protecting his meister first-hand, when they'd first met, and fought. Stein knew Maka couldn't have found a better partner, though he never intend let Soul know he thought that.

Turning his back on Spirit, Stein walked away, towards home. He had to prepare for the field trip Spirit had mentioned.

Stein had often wondered about why understanding a partner was so crucial to a successful weapon-meister relationship. Aside from the obvious reason of giving their teachers fewer headaches from their tiffs. Yet, without understanding and accepting one's partner, the weapon's soul-wavelength-amplifier wouldn't work.

It might not deal with the direct transformation of the human into the weapon, but it dealt with one aspect a fully transformed weapon should have, and therefore could be considered part of the overall transformation, just in the emotional and soul sections.

And Soul and Maka had a particularly strong connection, when they managed it. Maka's control over witch hunter was amazing, given she was only 15. They didn't necessarily understand each other, not all the time, and yet their connection was so strong even without full understanding, as long as during that single point of initiating soul resounance, they understood each other. This was the whole reason for tommorow's "field trip".

Stein had been mulling this point over in his head for a while, and had decided it was time to get some more data to test his theory. So, naturally, when he'd heard of a triplet who'd gone insane and started killing people, becoming pre-Kishins, he'd instantly reserved the job for a field trip for part of his class. Shinigami-sama had mentioned three pairs would be working together to fight Azura, and Stein would help them get ready. Who cared if he benefitted too?

Stein would take three weapon-meister partners, one for each triplet. Death the Kid, Liz, and Patty would take the eldest, Tsubaki and Blackstar would take the second-born, and Soul and Maka would take the youngest triplet. Stein had been very careful in picking each pair for each battle, to optimize the likelihood of him getting the results he wanted from his data. Besides, the kids wouldn't die. Probably.

When Stein got home, he began packing everything he would need for his observations in his special lab coat, designed for holding all kinds of research tools and papers, while shielding Stein from all kinds of harmful blows.

While he was creating the various tables and cleaning the various vials he needed, his mind began to wander to tomorrow. Even if the results weren't what he hoped, at least the kids would learn from fighting the two-star-worthy opponents. He cackled.

It would be a challenge, but what was a two-star enemy when compared to a Kishin? They would need to be able to defeat the kinds of enemies they would face tomorrow in a heartbeat if they wanted to survive the next few months. Especially if he couldn't find the answers he needed. The results would mean order of chaos, and since the release of Azura, Stein had been racing against the clock.

Finishing his preparations, he went to bed. Just as he fell asleep, his soul perception shuddered with a sudden increase in the madness wavelengths in Death City. His stomach rolled, and he fell into a bleak dreamland of bare, gray rock.

A volcano stood before him, with a path he could see winding up it, around and around the massive cone or rock. Curiousity piqued, he started up the long path, hopping where the rock was too hot with lava just beneath the surface. The first place where anything was different started out as an arch, leading down into the fiery volcano.

Walking through the arch, Stein emerged in a dimly lit amphitheater, with rows of stone for benches, a circled around a young man and a monster. No one was there, in the model Coliseum except for Stein. No one to see the poor kid die. Stein recognized the person as Kid when he whipped out his arms, Patty and Liz in his hands as pistols. He shot at the nimble creature, to no avail. None of his shots would land.

The monster was made of scraps of metal, pieced together awkwardly, in a vaguely human shape. The bullets dinged off the metal over its chest. It didn't even flinch. It dodged most of the bullets, lazily circling the young reaper.

Stein recognized the description of the eldest triplet, the monster Kid was to fight tomorrow. Was this a vision of what would happen tomorrow? Stein dismissed the idea immediately. It wasn't scientifically possible. Besides, there was no amphitheater. Not where they were going to tomorrow. Settling back to enjoy the show, Stein watched the battle with unconcerned interest.

After a few minutes, the creature seemed to tire of dodging and stepped in, slicing its metal arm down across the reaper-child's chest, a wall of crimson blood emerging. The screams of Liz and Patty were nothing like the anguish Stein could see in their souls.

Before Stein could do anything, the wall of red stretched out and pushed him back onto the path, sealing of the arch, and the people beyond to their fate. In the back of his mind, Stein knew he was dreaming. He was still sane enough to understand that. Still, the sight of someone getting hurt like that, because of something he set up pushed against his mental block on ethics.

He shoved the thought away, remembering _this isn't real_! But it felt real, as he trudged further up the slope, blisters forming on his heels. He shook off the growing burden as he reached the second archway. This one led into a perfectly spherical room with uneven columns of rock twisting this way and that, looking as if the room periodically shifted to form knew stalactites and stalagmites.

Rock shattered, and the entire room tilted. Stein caught a glimpse of dark wings cutting swiftly between pillars of rock, rotating with the room. The reason for the room's rotation suddenly became apparent when a turquoise blur came speeding towards him. Blackstar was running so fast he not only managed to run upside down on the ceiling, but move the room as well.

At a command from Blackstar, Tsubaki switched into her ball-and-chain form. As he swung at the second triplet, and missed, the ball and chain came flying towards Stein. He dived out of the way as the spiked metal ball took chunks out of the stone wall of the corridor. The room spun faster, and Stein realized the room was moving, but not the corridor.

As soon as he realized this, the room seemed to grow further and further from the corridor, swirling blackness surrounding it. His head whirled with dizziness as he heard Blackstar's yell of triumph. The spherical room shrunk to almost nothing and blackness swirled all around Stein. He wandered blindly, hands outstretched, looking for the wall that had been there a second ago.

"WAKE UP!" He screamed to himself, but remained in the blackness. So he concentrated on the top of the volcano, where he imagined his dream would release him. He closed his eyes tight, reached into his pocket, and touched the scalpel. The prick of pain when it cut through his skin was enough, and Stein opened his eyes when he felt the wave of heat knock him back.

He now stood at the rim of the volcano, on brittle stone, teetering. The heat came from the bubbling lava below, so hot that his sweat dried on its way out of his pores. His eyes stung and his mouth was dry. He saw a shape begin to take form in the lava below. A small figure, like that of a goblin, appeared, formed of black, living obsidian. It climbed the sides of the volcano, gripping the melting rock without trouble. It climbed out thirty feet from Stein, and turned to face two people who had just run up to the edge of the volcano, to the creature.

It laughed, and flung itself at them, Soul transforming without needing Maka's command. Stein watched with appreciation as they battled. They were well matched. It seemed as though neither could get an advantage, until Maka just missed blocking a kick. She flew backwards, towards the volcano.

She slammed Soul's blade into the ground in an attempt to get leverage, but her sweaty hands slid from the scythe completely, leaving her clinging to the rim with two hands. The black creature burst into flame and the lava roared higher.

Stein continued to watch apathetically as the young meister's grip on the hot rocks loosened slightly as her fingers lost strength.

Impatient, the youngest triplet flew forward, ready to knock her hands off their precarious perch, when Soul transformed again and caught the goblin under the neck with a roundhouse kick. It howled, grabbing it's neck, its flight disrupted.

But the creature jumped towards Maka, managing to scrape one of her hands off the ledge before Soul shoved the creature into the lava. Maka gasped at the scratch the creature gave her on its way down to the heated depths of the volcano. Her remaining hand spasmed at the pain and slipped. Soul gasped, fell to his knees and reached over the edge, just managing to grab her wrist.

As Stein watched, the relief on Soul's face dripped as the boy became lava. The entire world around Stein was now lava. The lava moved in every direction, currents pushing him from every direction. He attempted to make sense of the movement, knowing heat and density and pressure caused the movements. Yet, he could also sense another force acting upon the lava. Something more wild, less explainable. Chaos. Madness.

The volcano was having trouble holding the lava in. Soon, it would explode, destroying everything around it in a burst of madness. Stein realized what his subconscious meant. The lava was his sanity. He didn't have much time left. But right now, with the madness wavelengths vibrating in his brain, he really couldn't care less. Too bad for everyone else. Like it or not, tomorrow they were heading to fight the triplets in that deadly, sunlight-filled place Stein hated: the Bahamas.

**I know this chapter is probably pretty confusing, so I'm going to try to clear up a couple things (but feel free to ask any questions you still have!)**

**Stein is taking our favorite three student teams to go up against three high-level opponents. **

**What's more, they'll be fighting in the Bahamas!**

**Stein is starting to go crazy, which is really bad, because his research holds the key to defeating Azura (but I'm not going to tell you why or how just yet!).**

**His craziness is showing itself mainly in his dreams, where he sees the three fight their opponents, with mixed results. **

**It was JUST a dream, so the battles in the next chapters will be different (and hopefully a lot more awesome). **

**Thanks to everyone for reading, favoriting, following, reviewing, ect. !**


	4. The Nuisances Of Traveling

Dissection SOS

Chapter 4: The Nuisances Of Traveling

Stein guided the yawning teens through the airport, grumbling under his breath about how poorly teenagers and early mornings went together. Or really anything to do with teenagers. Stein hated the little brats more and more with every minute he spent with the loud assassin, the grumpy scythe, the half-asleep demon guns, and their respective irritating technicians.

It didn't even help his mood when Maka yawned, and said, "Oh, shut up, Soul. We'll be fighting things soon enough," the white haired boy grunted in response.

By the time everyone got through the airport security, Stein was ready to pull out a scalpel and teach them all a lesson. At least the airport security had backed off of him when he'd shown his Shibusen ID, and a personal pass from Shinigami-sama. Of course, that didn't stop them from putting him through all the various x-ray machines and running every sensor they had over him.

They weren't pleased when he explained the metal detector would go off regardless, because of his screw. They'd even told him they were suspicious that the screw might contain explosives. Though they had guessed correctly, given that the chemicals he stored in the screw _could_ be used to make a hydrogen bomb, that didn't mean he was a terrorist. He just liked blowing things up. Really, what was their problem?

To make matters worse, Blackstar was laughing his head off. Loudly, of course. With a bleak humor edged with the desire to actually test it, Stein wondered what the young assassin would do without his vocal cords. The very least Stein could do for the world would be to stiffen Blackstar's vocal cords up a bit, to keep him closer to an acceptable decibel level. Or he could just take them out entirely, but where was the challenge in that?

Maka had her nose in a book, and a bored Soul had to drag her after the group, earning a Maka-chop. Their ensuing argument had Stein's hand twitching towards the scalpel-bearing pocket of his lab coat. Eventually, the arguing couple caught his glares and quieted down a bit. Finally, they reached the gate.

Liz and Patty couldn't make trouble because they were too busy helping Kid through an OCD breakdown. Really, if the young Shinigami was going to be symmetrical with his toilet paper, why not just leave it in squares, Stein wondered.

On their lay over, between flights, Stein just managed to catch Blackstar as he tried to beat a plane in an unannounced race. On the tarmac. To top it off, Kid recovered, and allowed Patty and Liz to buy sodas. Liz defied chemistry: carbonation isn't _that _gaseous! It alternately made Stein disgusted, or even more eager to dissect her. As for Patty, Stein had no idea so many things could be turned into giraffes so fast. Or get their necks snapped so quickly.

Dealing with unhappy passengers who'd had their suitcases mauled in Patty's giraffe craze, or Blackstar's displeasure at not being allowed to beat an airplane, (because the man who will surpass God can obviously run faster than a plane), or had popped ear drums from Liz's concussive belches, put Stein in a very bad mood.

Halfway through the long flight, he walked down the rows to check on his charges. He stayed on the other side of the plane (the opposite aisle) because this was the beginning of his experiments. He would observe how the pairs faired on the long flight, without them being any the wiser!

It was entirely on purpose that the three groups had been separated from the others, left to their own devices for a few hours on a plane. After all, how much trouble could they get into on a plane? That was exactly was Stein intended to test.

Patty was giggling and poking the sleeping man beside her, who by all rights should have bought two seats. Overflowing from your own seat seemed to be humiliating and uncomfortable, judging by the man's sleeping scowl. As Patty enjoyed trying to fit the unconscious person into their seat (or at least out of hers) Liz avidly played the games offered on the miniature game consul set up in the back of every seat. Kid, beside her, was playing the plane-wide competitive world trivia game (as opposed to Liz's shooting game, which Stein thought ironic, since Kid was the technician).

Writing this down, Stein craned his neck and saw, much to his displeasure, Kid was using the username 88refer88, the pseudonym of the only person that had been able to beat Stein in the game this entire trip. He'd thought 'refer' was the person trying to mean anyone could refer to them for information, because they knew so many facts, but now he realized it was a palindrome word as well: it was the same word spelled both forwards and backwards. In that way, it was sort of symmetrical, and pertained to the game. Besides, 88? He should have known…

Stein hadn't realized he was glaring at Kid with a lethal gleam in his eyes until he heard a frightened flight attendant whispering to the stewardess. He shot a glare their way and their eyes grew wide. They left him alone. Just as he turned back to Kid, still winning the game, a voice coming from right in front of him said, "Look, Mister!" He glanced down to see a tiny four-year-old girl holding a pocket mirror up to him.

"Mommy keeps telling me that if you move your face like that, it'll stick that way forever! Smile!" the girl chirped happily, Stein's earlier angered expression going right over her head. Stein found the situation thoroughly disconcerting. It must have shown on his face, for the blond woman sitting next to the girl smiled knowingly at him.

He was surprised when he saw her. "Marie? It's been a while. Is this your daugh-"

"Oh, no, Stein. I'm just looking after her. My subordinate, the head of defense in Oceania, wanted her daughter to stay with her grandparents in the Bahamas until this mess with Azura has been cleared up," Marie explained gently, "Shinigami-sama had been wanting me to come by to pick up some plans and maps and such for Oceania and myself, so I figured I'd take little Talia here to her grandparents, after stopping by Death City," Talia ignored them, absorbed in a coloring book on her lap.

Stein blinked, disturbed by Marie's desire to help with a problem that didn't really seem to be her problem, and would certainly be more trouble for her than not. He'd never understood her, though they'd met occasionally over the years when she passed by Death City. Funny, usually she stopped by to chat at least. And give him coffee… Stein was pleased, maybe that meant he wouldn't have to put up with her long, worried discussions about others when all he wanted to do was go in the other room and dissect something, anymore.

He sighed, figuring it was time to get the polite necessities out of the way so he would get to study Blackstar before the optimal time Stein had calculated to study him was over. So trying to keep the boredom out of his voice, he asked Marie, "Don't you want your children out of it too?" and before he realize his mistake, Marie glared at him, angry.

She threw a pencil at his head, which he blocked only with his quick reflexes and the clipboard he was holding. The pencil quivered, parallel to the ground, stuck solidly in his clipboard. "I don't have-" she began angrily, but her voice broke and she finished sobbing, "Have any-y k-kids-s!" She sobbed, and Stein considered the woman.

He flipped to a blank page on his clipboard and began taking notes. Secretly, he was slightly glad she couldn't see the 'reacts violently to being asked about the well-being of children' and 'clearly overly hormonal' or 'stutters in response to emotional stimuli' he was writing down. Hmm, there could be any number of reasons for her to act this way. To test one theory, he began to ask her a question, "By any chance are you about to start your per-" but she shrieked "MARIE-CHOP" and slammed him on the head with the thick romance novel she'd been reading.

"I'll take that as a yes," he slurred, trying to recover from the magnificently hard blow.

"Hmph!" she crossed her arms and turned away from him. Stein smirked and walked off to go observe Blackstar.

The blue-haired idiot was trying to open the emergency exit from his seat two rows in front it. Tsubaki was ineffectively attempting to convince him to do something else. He wasn't interested in the games the plane had to offer. No, he was only interested in trying to stretch his arms far enough to depressurize the entire cabin, sucking everyone out into the sky over the middle of the sea, 10,000 feet below.

Once Stein had finished writing down his observations and made inferences as to the psychological processes behind Blackstar's actions, he considered intervening before Blackstar actually managed to kill everyone in here. Not that Blackstar realized that's what would happen. Stein knew the boy just saw the red letters warning people not to open it unless it was an emergency. Either it was an emergency to see instructions on how to open a door, and not being permitted to open it, or the assassin had very selective reading abilities.

Before Stein had to intervene, Blackstar's arms had reached the row before the emergency exit. Unfortunately for him, the well-endowed woman in the seat closest to the window was sleeping slouched against the wall of the plane. Predicting what was going to happen, Stein whipped out a video camera. This would be too fun not to watch over and over.

Utterly unaware, Blackstar continued his quest for the door. With a hoot of laughter, Stein wondered what he must have been thinking. As if the assassin could even come up with something remotely plausible. Then again, Blackstar was a teenage boy. There was a possibility he could guess correctly.

Apparently not, because he then felt around, probably to try to understand what he was touching. The woman woke with a scream, not that Blackstar noticed. He was too puzzled. "Tsubaki, why are the seats behind us so much softer?" he asked loudly. She turned around to see what he meant, and shrieked as well. The ever-calm Tsubaki hauled off and slapped Blackstar with all her might.

Since he'd long since forgone his seatbelt, the boy flew into the side of the plane, breath and spit knocked out of him. He eyes were wide, staring at his livid partner. Stein was willing to bet he'd never seen his partner like this before. This time though, she had a right to be.

"You would dare to slap the man who will surpass God?!" Blackstar shouted, half angry, half confused.

"Well, when you go putting you hands on strangers' b-" Tsubaki screamed, then choked, seemingly unable to continue. Even Stein never would have guessed she could easily match her meister's volume when angry. He immediately began scribbling down facts, keeping the video camera trained on them, capturing the flight attendant trying to shush them.

Before the typically calm and self-conscious girl could work up the spunk to continue her rant, Blackstar howled, and _finally_ drew his hand back to his lap. Tsubaki, Blackstar, Stein, and the video camera turned to see the woman holding a massive hammer, glaring daggers at the young assassin.

Stein couldn't stop laughing! Not when he saw the huge bruise on Blackstar's arm, quickly swelling up. Nor when he saw the dent in the side of the plane from the impact of the hammer on Blackstar's arm. Stein didn't stop laughing until the stewardess came up to him, telling him to control his charges, or else they'd all be thrown off the plane. Since being off the plane was apparently what the young boy was after. Well, one of the things it appeared he was after.

Still chuckling, Stein walked down the aisle, ignoring the nonplussed Blackstar. He could hear the boy ask Tsubaki, "Why would she hit me with a hammer? I didn't know the her stomach was against the wall!"

Tsubaki sweat dropped, and replied gently, as if to a three-year-old, "Oh, Blackstar, that, uh, wasn't her stomach…"

Stein doubted Blackstar would understand unless she spelled it out for him. That boy was no good at subtlety. Not with his actions, nor with his words. Stein felt sorry for the patient meister. She clearly cared for the dense idiot, who obviously didn't see it. Oh well, not his problem! He was going to the very back of the plane, where Maka and Soul were seated. And he had _plans_ for them.

When he got within sight of them, he saw Maka was, surprise, surprise, reading! Soul looked thoroughly bored, and had his reaper-made skull-patterned headphones on. As Stein watched, Soul's eyes began to droop, and his mouth fell slightly open as he fell asleep. His head tilted away from the aisle, towards Maka. She didn't notice until some drool dripped on her beloved book.

"SOUL!" she whisper-shouted, not wanting to wake the entire plane -how embarrassing- so when he didn't respond, her book slammed into his head with her quiet but anger-filled cry of "MAKA-CHOP!"

Soul woke, clutching his head. The pair started their usual argument, but Soul blanched when Maka showed him the ruined page. At least Soul understood that much about his partner, Stein thought. Yet, they seemed to be simply friendly.

Nothing in either's demeanor gave away the feelings Stein had observed them each display for the other, on occasion, in class or battles. Soul and Maka settled their quarrel fairly quickly and went back to their respective entertainment. Stein sighed. These two weren't nearly as fun to observe as Blackstar and Tsubaki. Well, it'd be more interesting when they were fighting something, and creating the results he _really _needed. Or once he'd found a way to put some of his _other_ plans for them in action!

For later testing as the control (closely related to his _other_ plans for them), Stein chose an empty vial from his lab coat and strolled the rest of the way down the aisle to the toilets. Just before the reeking lavatories was a hallway, for the flight attendants to prepare drinks and such. Stein crossed this corridor and ended up right behind Maka and Soul, as planned when he bought their tickets. He uncorked his vial, quickly whipped it through the air between the two and corked it, disappearing down the hallway in under a second. He hoped the nearby lavatories wouldn't mess up his air sample. Stein made his way back to his seat to further analyze the data he'd collected. And this was only the beginning, Stein thought gleefully!

By the time they go to the airport, Stein's good mood had long since spoiled. By the time they'd gotten out of the airport, Stein _needed_ to dissect something. Luckily for him, the taxi driver had sensed the futility of protesting Stein bringing the platypus he'd found by the side of the road to the hotel. He left the kids to check themselves in, and after getting his own room key, he ran off to set up his portable, internationally approved, travel-sized lab-dissection-table.

Three hours later, he walked happily from his room, clumps of brown platypus fur sticking randomly to his lab coat. His blond hair was rumpled from the platypus' bid for escape. Stein was proud of being able to throw his scalpel hard enough to snap its neck without cutting into the supple skin.

In the lounge, he found Marie reclining on a sofa, reading a magazine and sipping a cup of tea. He scowled. "What're you doing here?" he asked gruffly.

She smiled, "Didn't Shinigami-sama tell you? We're going to be partners for the next few months, at least until this Azura business is cleared up," he frowned. Shinigami-sama hadn't told him anything like that!

"You must be mistaken. Besides, both of us can fight perfectly well alone. Neither of us needs a partner. Its stupid-" Stein began.

"Stein. With Arachnephobia and Azura, there's going to be plenty of very difficult missions that Shinigami-sama can't trust to anyone but the best. Take it as a compliment!" Stein snorted, _some compliment_ he thought, "Besides, I can deal with the children when you don't want to," she played her trump card. Stein knew she knew how much he hated dealing with children, teenagers especially. Dirty trick though it was, he wouldn't look the gift horse in the mouth. If she wanted to deal with the grouchy, impudent kids, he wouldn't stop her.

"Hmp. Did you take, uh, Trish to her grandparents?" he asked, trying to make sure she wouldn't wiggle out of looking after the Shibusen kids.

She frowned, "Yes, _Talia _was happy to see her grandparents, and she'll be safe there," moving straight to the subject Stein hoped to avoid, she continued, "So, tomorrow is when they'll go fight the triplets?" Stein grunted affirmation. "Well, then I'll help supervise-" He hadn't thought her taking care of them might result in messing up his experiments; he had to think quickly.

Stein didn't want to alert her to his plans by a vehement reaction, but he had to try something, so he said, "We'll rotate between the three, taking turns with each battling group," then an idea occurred to him, and he added support to his argument, "That way, if two groups need help, we can help them, whereas if we go together, we'll only be able to help one at a time," her eyes narrowed briefly in suspicion, but she quickly shrugged it off, apparently acknowledging they wisdom of his logic.

Stein smiled, happy to have the disaster she could have wreaked on his data collection delayed, at least for the moment, until he heard her next words.

"And the day after that, we'll let them have a mini-vacation! They can go to the beach, swim, play sand volleyball, have fun…" she trailed off happily and sighed, longing for the beautiful Caribbean beaches.

Stein frowned. He wanted to get back to Death City to analyze his results as soon as possible. "Beaches can be so romantic," Marie swooned. Stein started, his brain going into planning overdrive as a wealth of ideas for certain, _other_ aspects of his research popped into existence in his head. There were possibilities and possibilities for this trip. He planned to make full use of them.

"All right, we'll give them an extra day to enjoy the Bahamas," Stein said, "Let the kids know," and he turned abruptly, going back to his room to plan out his schemes, and much later, sleep.

**This was originally going to be a short little transition chapter, but as I wrote it, more and more ideas just kept popping up! Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed the many subtle and not-so-subtle jokes I tried to weave in!**

**Thanks to all my readers, followers, reviewers and favoriters!**

**Lialane Greast- Thanks! Stein's quite the character, isn't he? Whoever came up with him is awesome! Yeah, everything turned out ok!**

**Bloody Raptor- Saying that inspires me to write faster!**

**JoJo0515- Someone's highly complimentary of herself, but yeah, that was pretty smart! Oh, and if you keep that profile pic, I might just start calling you Merida! (Yes, I can hear you groan at that)**

**Ian-Was Blackstar obnoxious enough here ;) ? Making the jokes obvious takes all the fun out of it! Otherwise I would. Thanks for the critiques!**


	5. Triplet Fight: Bread and Circuses

Dissection SOS

Chapter 5: Triplet Fight: Bread and Circuses

Stein was drinking a cup of strong coffee in the hotel lobby when a loud shout of, "Isn't your god awesome to be up so early?!" Stein sighed, having had enough of the assassin already. So much for his hope of him staying asleep longer. Oh well. It was almost time to meet the triplets anyways.

An hour later, Stein dragged the kids out of bed and waited for them to get ready for their battles. Despite her insistence that she would take care of dealing with the kids, as far as Stein knew, Marie was still sleeping. He grumbled, annoyed at her going back on her promise.

Just as the last pair, Blackstar and Tsubaki, stumbled downstairs, and Soul moaned about how dawn was way too early to try to take down an enemy, Marie decided to join them. To Stein's surprise, she came in from outside, not from her room. Maybe she had been up. He was about to snap at her for not getting the kids up, when the sugary smell of doughnuts and the yeasty smell of bagels hit his nose.

He turned around, not bothering to mask the surprise on his face. She smiled at his expression, quirking an eyebrow at him, as if she knew he'd wanted to scold her. "I got you all some breakfast, since you're going to have a hard battle, you need to be well fed and at full strength!" she chirped happily.

"All right!" they whooped and descended on the boxes like a pack of starving hyenas. Stein dived in and wrestled a cinnamon bagel out of the throng of food-crazed teenagers. Marie was smiling, happy to see the kids enjoying her treat.

"Marie," Stein complained.

"Oh, you're just as happy to be fed. Judging by the way you jumped in there with them…"

"No! It's just that by the time they were finished with it, there would have been crumbs left, or a very contaminated cinnamon bagel. Cinnamon helps to boost cognitive function and memory. I just happen to value those things."

"Of course," she said, her tone bland and neutral. Stein was suspicious, but she walked off to go get a doughnut for herself.

When she came back, he took out his frustration at the delay by commenting, "You know, if you keep eating doughnuts, you won't be able to fit into that outfit. I mean, you barely can already," he walked off to get a glass of orange juice as she gasped. If he was entirely honest, he knew quite the opposite was true. He noticed how well the clothes fit her, fashionably snug, but not too tight. He just didn't care. But he knew she would.

After thirty minutes of waiting for everyone to finish eating, Stein's patience was gone, and he told them, "If you eat much more you'll all die," _that_ shut them up. He let them chew on that for a moment (pun intended) before explaining, "Full bellies cause the digestive system to pull blood from your brain to your stomach and intestines to help with the digestive process. That means not only are you not as smart as usual, which isn't saying much, but you are also slower. Either could get you killed," seeing their bored faces, he added, "Besides, wouldn't it be a little awkward for most of you if you needed to relieve yourself, after eating so much, in the middle of a fight? Because it's not like you can tell you partner to go away for a minute or two,"

Everyone except Blackstar sweat dropped. Maka spat out her bite of bagel, Liz looked disgusted, Patty looked happily at her now giraffe-shaped doughnut, and Tsubaki looked slightly green. Kid and Soul shifted uncomfortably, but continued eating. Tsubaki was the first girl to unfreeze and take a drink. Just then, Blackstar yelled, "Why would that be a problem? Anyone would be glad to see their God, me, shi-" Tsubaki spat out her drink as she turned a hundred shades of red, and Soul punched Blackstar in the jaw before he could continue.

Stein chuckled at the mayhem, and walked off towards the doors outside. "Come outside when you're ready to fight something besides each other," he called out as he walked through the automatic doors.

_Finally,_ everyone finished, and was ready to make their way towards their enemies. Though Stein made note of the fact that steam was still shooting out Tsubaki's ears. Stein ignored Marie's reproving glances the entire hike up the green-covered mountain. Only high up did the trees stop growing, leaving bare gray rock. Stein knew this was the island that currently housed the volcano that'd created this chain of islands over the centuries.

An odd feeling of déjà vu struck him as he used his binoculars to see the top of the mountain, where he could see something black moving around by a stream of lava. Where had he seen that before? After a few minutes of searching his brain, he dismissed the mental nudge that he'd forgotten something about the situation as aggravation for starting so late.

He used his Soul Perception, and saw that they were close to where two of the three triplets sat, sleeping, if their souls were any indication. Either that, or they were ridiculously stupid. But if they'd been stupid, they wouldn't have been able to kill so many citizens in the town below without getting caught by regular policemen.

Maka must have been using her Soul Perception too, because she asked, "Where's the third?" Stein sighed, and thrust his Soul Perception farther, with a twist and a push in his mind. He subtly leaned on a tree, trying to cover up the dizziness pushing his range caused. Just as he was about to faint, he sensed the third, and youngest, triplet high up on the mountain, moving down fast.

"Coming from the mountain," Stein said, doing his best to keep the strain from his voice. The last thing he needed was Soul and Blackstar calling him 'old man' for the rest of the trip. He appeared to have fooled them, but he caught Marie's worried gaze. He frowned and looked away, up the mountain. He'd forgotten she had an uncanny sense for when someone was hurting.

"Let's go," he said gruffly. When they got close to the clearing, Stein told each pair whom they'd be fighting. He told them to discuss tactics as partners and as a group together. Part of the reason for this trip was to see how they could plan on their own in unknown territory.

He told Marie, "You'll go with Kid's group first. They might have some difficultly if he has another OCD attack," I'll keep an eye on Soul and Maka. Then, we can rotate. You'll go to Blackstar and Tsubaki, I'll go to Kid, then I'll go to Blackstar and Tsubaki, and you'll go to Maka and Soul, okay?"

"All right," she said as the kids moved off to take places among the trees around the clearing. Stein and Marie moved after their respective groups. Stein paused at the edge of the clearing near where Maka held a transformed Soul. He could see the excitement, slightly edged with anxious anticipation in both their faces (Soul's face showed up in the blade of the scythe).

They scanned for their target, who was almost to the clearing. Blackstar let out a whoop and started running through the trees part way around the clearing. Stein spotted Kid perched in a tree, ready to shoot. Before either could harm their opponents, a small black creature with a scrunched face, big pointed ears, a muscled torso and legs, wearing just a loincloth came barreling in. The three-foot tall creature had mischievous orange eyes that glowed and seemed to shift like lava. It's skin was shiny, like obsidian, and based on the clanging when the bucket it carried hit it, quite hard, like armor.

Stein frowned, glimpsing the contents of the bucket. In the regular, gray metal pail, there were a couple gallons of lava. Somehow, the container was not melting. Stein eagerly started to scribble down his findings as he made a mental note to take the bucket, or part of it, before they left after the fight. Stein knew Pre-Kishins' form changed to something related to their level of evil power and their previous human soul, but since he'd never seen one like this, he decided to call it a fire goblin.

Kid halted, waiting to see what would happen. The idiot Blackstar kept running towards the lava-bearing little fire goblin. Luckily for him, he was at just the right angle where the goblin didn't see him. Instead, it kept running towards its brothers, and put its hand to the bottom of the bucket as he ran, tilting it. The youngest triplet dumped the bucket out over its siblings, and ran back towards the top of the mountain at full sprint, cackling. Maka and Soul followed as fast as they could.

Stein paused just long enough to see the two triplets wake with furious cries and turn towards their fleeing brother, only to be hit by a sudden onslaught, courtesy of Blackstar and Kid.

Stein whirled around and sprinted after Soul and Maka, easily falling into the long stride he'd trained himself to back when he and Spirit were the stars of Shibusen.

They ran up the mountain, the third brother not seeming to sense anything amiss. He probably thought his brothers made any sounds he heard. Eventually, the goblin stopped at the first stream of lava they came to, which having come this far down the mountain (though they were thousands of feet above sea level by now) was covered by a thin crust of black rock that Stein knew could be deceptive.

Stein could feel the heat it gave off from fifty feet away, and knew there would be hot lava just under the surface. Chances were, Maka and Soul didn't know that. Maybe he'd get to observe how a burned scythe looked once back in human form. Either way, the goblin, who either didn't weigh very much, or knew exactly where the lava crust was thickest, maybe both, picked his way across the lava.

Stein strained his ears and strengthened with his soul perception to try to pick up Soul and Maka's conversation. Between the faint sounds he could hear and the changing emotions of the pair, he could piece together their conversation.

Bloodlust. "Get him now, Maka, while he's going slow. He's just about as fast as us, so we need to get him while he's being slow,"

Cautiousness. "No, Soul, he would know this area better than anyone, and he's on the run from very angry siblings. Not that I would know, but I think he'd probably go faster if it were wise to do so. There has to be a reason he's going so slow,"

Impatience. "Well then at least follow him! If we lose him now-"

Satisfaction. "Oh! I just thought of something!" Stein heard the snap of a branch being broken and leaned around the boulder he hid behind to see Maka, one hand holding Soul, the other holding a branch. She advanced cautiously towards the slope of lava streams.

Stein saw her eyes flick up and take notice of the hotter lava above, the orange liquid slowly rolling down the mountain, little bits cooling to black and sinking into the flow again. The color of the lava darkened as it hardened, further and further down the mountain. He sighed. It looked like he wasn't going to get to examine a burned Soul after all. Pity. Unless her plan failed, he thought hopefully.

She knelt to the ground and put the sensitive back of her hand, still holding the branch, against the ground. She pulled back at the heat. She scanned the ground in front of her, seeing the slight humps of rock that signified streams. She also seemed to see the way the streams split off of one another, forming new streams, more forming faster, the higher up the mountain she looked. Stein wondered how she would overcome this hurdle, and whipped out a notebook as he saw a familiar expression of determination come over her face.

Stein watched as she put the stick on the ground, carefully lined Soul up, and brought him down on the stick. His blade cut cleanly through the stick, and she pulled him up just before he could break through the brittle rock. She did the same to the other side, until she had a long stick with two flat ends. She backed up and scanned the slope for a good five minutes.

Glancing up the slope, Stein saw the goblin was halfway up the slope, hopping quickly between the lava streams, seeming to know where the streams would split off before they did. He looked from the goblin to Maka and realized what she had planned. He watched, scribbling his findings and predictions as she whispered something to Soul, whose face in the scythe blade nodded grimly, and part of the shaft turned into an arm that wrapped around her, holding him to her while she placed both her hands on the stick.

She backed up, and then sprinted towards the lava streams. She jumped, twisting her hands so the stick hit the ground at an angle. Their momentum swung the stick forward, and Maka pushed against the stick, catapulting them up the slope. At the arc of that jump, she flipped the stick around again, scanning in midair for the next place she'd chosen to put the stick down. The stick hit with authority in the most solid places available as the two catapulted up the slope.

To Stein's amazement, they didn't fall, Maka's arms never faltered in vaulting them up the steep slope at the perfect angle so they never landed in a stream, and Soul never even seemed slightly off balance with Maka. The fluidity was perfect. They were halfway up the slope, closing in on the goblin when he noticed them. His eyes widened, and he threw out his hand, and a piece of hot rock, dripping lava on its bottom, flew towards the pair. Maka pushed off at a different angle, and started improvising where to land.

She dodged most of the lava rocks, the stick falling faster and faster as she pushed from place to place up the mountain. Whenever a lava ball came close to them, and Maka couldn't dodge, Soul twisted and batted it away with his blade, grimacing at the heat. Yet, the pair never faltered. Their teamwork was flawless, the duo's dynamic. Stein grudgingly admired the power of the pair's understanding that was so great that their soul resonance could be so powerful they seemed to think with a single brain. He had to study them more! The desire to dissect them grew to the point where Stein was forced to almost put his hand in a lava stream to focus again.

Suddenly, a lava ball hit the bottom part of the stick and it burst into flames. Stein could almost hear Soul's cursing from the bottom of the slope, where he stood. Glancing at his watch, he regretfully saw it was time to switch to Kid's group. He looked up for a last glance to see Maka using a fully transformed Soul the same way she had the stick, catapulting faster and faster, with him helping her push off. Never did either try to push in a direction the other wasn't going. The goblin scowled and took off up the mountain, bucket clanging against its leg as it ran on up the lava slope trying to outrace the witty pair.

Stein ran back down the mountain towards where his Soul Perception showed the reaper and his weapons were fighting. It was difficult to pinpoint them, because their Souls kept bouncing around, doing flips and jumping around in a big circle. What on Earth was Kid doing?

Stein remembered seeing Kid in the trees around the clearing earlier. Surely he wasn't still there. And what's more, how could he be fighting _in_ the trees? Even for a reaper, that took killer balance and precision. Then again, if anyone could be perfectly precise, and evenly balanced, it would be a reaper with severe OCD, Stein figured.

Stein was almost at the clearing when he had to jump aside as a brown, leathery creature flew by, Blackstar hot in pursuit. Marie came sprinting after them. As she came towards the tree he hid behind, he stepped out in front of her, and she ran face-planted in his chest. He smirked, and said, "Good thing you're following so closely. Wouldn't want to get lost, now would you?"

She scowled, panting slightly, her face red tinted, from running (and who she'd run into…) and said, "No, I wouldn't get lost. I know they're going about that direction," she motioned.

He continued, ignoring her denial, "That direction now, actually. Soul and Maka are up near the top of the mountain. Head that way for the next shift," he ran off towards the clearing, noticing her sigh, and footsteps going down into the thick jungle, after Blackstar.

Reaching the clearing, he saw the blade-bearing vaguely clown-shaped creature swiftly spinning, tossing knives into the air as if doing a intricate type of juggling, as if trying to creating a picture in the air. It ran around the clearing, catching daggers as they fell, and tossing them on another arc, to be caught again seconds later.

Though the creature never missed a single knife, and the air was full of razor-sharp blades flying this way and that, Kid seemed almost to fly from tree to tree he was jumping so fast. Each time he crossed more than a quarter of the length of the clearing's diameter in a single jump, he twisted in midair, contorting to stay out of the knives' paths with his enhanced reaper senses. He would do a front flip, during those longer jumps too, and at exactly 88 degrees of rotation, he would shoot Patty and Liz constantly at his moving target until he reached exactly 176 degrees of rotation, leaving him shooting for 88 degrees worth of time per jump.

Not really worth it in terms of strength and fatigue, Stein thought, but that was the reaper's choice. Stein settled into the underbrush two trees back from the edge of the clearing, and propped his clipboard up to take lots of notes. He yawned, turned the screw in his head, and began writing. Fighting really was a spectator sport.

**Would you all prefer more fight scenes, more classroom antics, more dissection, more romance, what? I only have a couple more chapters planned out, so I'm open to suggestion! **

**Next time will be the rest of Kid's fight, and the last (and most interesting) part of Blackstar's fight. Plus a little plot twist at the end ;) **

**I should probably explain the title… It's a reference to the method used in the Ancient Roman Empire for keeping people from rebelling at harsh military lifestyle, by giving them "free bread and circuses" meaning free food and entertainment, i.e. watching gladiators getting mauled by lions in the Coliseum. Tons of fun, unless you were a gladiator. **

**Also, 'Bread' for the bagels and doughnuts they got for getting up so early, and 'Circuses' for the entertainment Stein gets out of watching the fights, and the clown-like triplet Kid fights. **

**Thanks to everyone for reading, reviewing, following, favoriting, and I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter!**

**Lialane Graest: Me too! I'm having fun planning that, which will probably end up being chapter 8. Even if it's a bit OOC, I like shy characters like Marie and Tsubaki making their opinions known, and not just accepting others' decisions. **

**Bloody Raptor: Much appreciated!**

**Ian: Yup, Blackstar sure is naughty ;D! Merci beaucoup (French)!**

**JoJo0515: Dunno, if you get some epic archery skills, it'd totally fit… Thanks!**


	6. Triplet Fight: Trees and Tunnels

Dissection SOS

Ch 6: Triplet Fight: Trees and Tunnels

Kid flew threw the air, dodging knives at the speed of light. He twisted his body to avoid the razor-sharp blades threatening to slice him open. Stein admired the precision with which the young reaper shot the enemy. Though, the enemy was moving fast enough to keep his knives in the air, effectively keeping Kid from performing a more powerful shot. In fact, he was moving fast enough to avoid most of Kid's shots. The shots that did hit glanced off its body.

Its body had machetes for limbs, twine wrapped around every hilt and along each adjacent blade, acting as joints and holding the creature together. Stein could see what Kid needed to do. Stein had mentioned in class how knowing an enemy's weaknesses could help you in a fight. There was an obvious weakness here: the twine. Stein watched interestedly to see if Kid would notice that. Or figure out how to exploit it before getting himself killed. Either way, Stein figured it'd be a good show.

However, if Kid wanted to break the twine, he'd have to shoot far more accurately. In other words, he'd have to perfectly predict where the knife-man would be. Even for a reaper, the chances of that were too slim to make that a smart choice.

In that case, what was Kid's plan? He wasn't shooting at the knives in the air, trying to knock them into the knife-man, and neither did he concentrate enough on one area of the ground, creating a hole to make the knife-man trip, which would make him an easier target. Instead, Kid just jumped from tree to tree. He didn't even jump on the side of the trees closest to the clearing, but at odd angles, at the sides of the trees.

As he watched, Stein slowly began to notice a pattern. Kid was landing and pushing off the trees going from lower to higher on the trees, focusing mainly on the lower parts, going across the clearing in a series of arcs that hit every single tree once, before repeating. The longer this went on, the more strain the trees seemed to be taking from this treatment, and they began to creak and groan.

Suddenly, Kid's pattern began to subtly shift, and he focused more on certain trees, with no particular reason that Stein could see. Then Stein noticed how many trees Kid's new pattern hit. 8, of course, in almost a perfect octagon. Still the knife-man created the metal net(1) in the air, throwing daggers again and again, not seeming to tire. Kid hadn't got scratched even once, though, even when his pattern shifted.

With the scream of tearing wood, the trees Kid had been focusing on all toppled at once, with a deafening bang. The knife-man barely dodged a falling tree trunk, and many of his knives had gotten caught in the trees as they fell. Others had been knocked out of their arcs by the wind from the falling trees.

The knife-man barely dodged the hail of daggers that fell towards him. Kid kept up his jumping and shooting with a new octagon of trees as his opponent grabbed the knives he could reach and tossed them back up into the air again. This time, the dance of daggers and arcs was far less polished, and more than once the knife man tripped on a branch, and missed a dagger. Soon, a missed dagger fell and cut through the twine on one foot, leaving him hobbling around.

Stein understood Kid's plan now, and was grudgingly impressed with the absolute precision required for the trees to fall over inward, let alone simultaneously, and the fact that Kid had noticed his guns weren't necessarily the perfect tools to exploit the creature's weakness, and had found an alternative, by using the knife-man's own weapons against him.

Not bad, for a perfectionist, OCD, stripe-haired, teenage boy. Stein watched as Kid flew through his second octagon, and waited for the second round of trees to fall. Seeing there were fifteen trees still standing, he smirked, predicting what would happen.

Sure enough, the next eight trees fell and the knife-man's other foot and one arm were cut off. Kid, still bouncing from tree to tree, shot and hit the other arm off. Then, as the knife-man began to kick knives up into the air to form the earlier pattern, with it's shin-knife, Kid catapulted to where, in a perfect octagon, the eighth tree would be.

Stein doubled over with laughter as the surprised child reaper fell through the air, out of his perfect midair dance. Stein had correctly predicted Kid would so badly want there to be another tree there, to make a perfect octagon, that he would actually believe one was there! Turns out human minds aren't that different from Shinigami minds.

Stein could hear Liz yelling at her meister and Patty laughing as Kid stood up and began raging at the injustice of there being only seven trees left. Especially since the trees were perfectly aligned to form an octagon. What a horrible trick of nature…

Still hooting with laughter, Stein saw the knife-man realize his prey wasn't in the treetops anymore, and started kicking knives towards the Shinigami's turned back. Leaning against a tree, Stein wondered if Kid would turn around in time. Sure enough, at the last possible second, Kid spun around, deflected the knives and quickly shot at the semi-disabled knife man.

Many of the shots ricocheted off the knives, shooting off into the edges of the clearing. Also, Kid had to keep using Liz and Patty to deflect the knives, as Liz screamed in terror and even Patty wasn't laughing anymore. Stein watched, smirking, until he had to dive frantically out of the way as a stream of deflected bullets shot towards his face.

Swearing under his breath, Stein had rolled out of the way, into another tree. Unfortunately, it was one Kid had been working on earlier, and now it creaked, and toppled, right towards Kid. Oops. Ah, whatever, Stein didn't mind making the fight a bit more interesting.

Stein stood up and straightened his lab coat as Kid sprinted out of the way, desperately trying to avoid both the knives and the very large tree. As soon as he was out of the trees smashing range, he went back to shooting at the knife-man, and soon shot of a leg. With the now decreased number of knives flying towards him, Kid was able to shoot off the other leg, and then, in a final blow, shoot off the twine that held the head to the body. Stein walked away as the creature gave a final howl, as the knives all fell limply to the ground.

Stein turned on his Soul Perception to find out where Blackstar was, and found him down deep in the jungle. Heading off towards him, he heard Kid say tremulously, "Marie-sama? Stein-sama?" but Stein didn't bother answering. He'd have to learn to deal with there being six trees still standing rather than eight sooner or later.

Shoving through thick undergrowth, Stein made his way through the jungle, dodging birds, insects, and other animals that were almost as thick as the air here. Ugh. Then, to top it off, a howler monkey whooped by and flew right over his head, and raised it's tail, depositing it's latest _already digested_ meal on Stein's head.

Stein brought his hand up, and shocked the indiscriminately excreting creature to death with his Soul Wavelength. He grabbed a leaf to wipe of the monkey's excretion from his hair when a family of very unhappy caterpillars abruptly met his head, as their leafy home was ripped of it's tree. They fell into the filth on the scientist's head.

Very annoyed now, Stein grabbed a nearby sloth and wiped the muck on his head off onto the live creature's fur. Tossing the sloth back into the tree, Stein stomped off, leaving the traumatized sloth. Suddenly, his heavy step broke through the ground, and he chided himself for noticing too late that no animals walked here.

He lost his balance and with a thud, his body fell through the jungle floor, down into a tunnel just below the surface. Being lithe, Stein somersaulted and landed on his feet, assessing his surroundings. He was in a dry, dark tunnel. The rough but very tubular shape indicated, along with the volcano on the island, indicated that these were old lava tubes.

He heightened his Soul Perception and felt Blackstar zooming around to his right, but not above him. Stein realized he must have fallen into the dark lava tube cavern system as well. Without the use of sight, it would be an interesting fight, though hard to observe as a third party, and also, at the speeds the fighters seemed to be moving, hard to stay out of. He jogged through tunnel after tunnel, getting annoyed as each tunnel he took turned him away from Blackstar, as if the fight was taking place in the center of the system, with all tunnels weaving around and away from it, leaving only the centermost thoroughfares open to the room.

Eventually, Stein found a much larger tunnel that took him closer and closer to the fight. After many more minutes of walking, on his next step his foot fell through empty air, and Stein threw himself backward to save himself from falling into the hole of unknown depth. Pulling his foot back, he reached down to feel the hole. The dull flap of wings was accompanied by various fleshy smacks and thuds and the slithering of metal on metal as Stein felt along the opening. For as far as he dared reach, he felt a fairly regular curve, almost like part of a sphere. In the pitch-black tunnel, he couldn't see if it leveled out into a drop or if it ended in a flat floor a few feet down, but he recognized the Souls that clambered around the room.

A loud whoop confirmed his suspicions as the assassin pushed off from what Stein assumed to be the opposite wall, and started running around the room, his grunts indicating Blackstar was slashing at his opponent. To Stein's amazement, he saw the boy go around and around the room in all directions. Literally. Stein's eyebrow's rose as he watched Blackstar's Soul sprint up the wall and run across the ceiling. Defying gravity, the determined meister neither stopped nor fell, and Stein had to quickly pull his hand back as Blackstar landed where his hand had been.

A metal ball struck the rock inches from Stein's face and he sensed Tsubaki, in ball and chain scythe mode (2), inches away from skewering his face. Grabbing a scalpel, he threw it forward, only to miss as the boy shot of the ledge after a whoosh of air from flapping wings passed by. A primal shriek told Stein his scalpel must have accidentally ended up in the creature. Stein cursed, he was making things too easy for Blackstar.

The boy whooped, then a smack sounded and Blackstar screamed, "Who put the f***ing rock there!?" and Stein snickered. Tsubaki calmly explained that stalagmites were to be expected in caverns, even in oddly spherical ones.

Blackstar started running again, only to be pulled backwards as Tsubaki cried out. "Blackstar! Stop! When you ran into the stalagmite, my chain got wrapped around it!" Mentally picturing it, Stein enjoyed his cartoon fantasy of the comical scene.

Blackstar growled in annoyance, "Then go to Ninja Sword mode, Tsubaki!" He yelled. The crack of rock breaking reached Stein as Tsubaki transformed and sliced through the rock. After the crumbling rock had stilled, Blackstar stood perfectly still, for once being as silent as the assassin he claimed to be. Stein strained his ears to hear the proceedings.

A tiny rustle of wings came from somewhere in the room. The circular shape of the room messed up the acoustics, causing any noise to reverberate and deceive any listener as to the position of the perpetrator of the noise.

Nevertheless, the determined young assassin launched himself towards his opponent, whose position he estimated. The crunch of a body on stone had Stein rolling on the tunnel floor with laughter. The scratch of claws on stone sounded, and the pterodactyl-like creature edged its way around the stalagmite Blackstar was plastered to, grabbing Blackstar.

A yell told the scientist blood had been drawn. A grunt, then a high, animal scream pierced the air as Blackstar swung Tsubaki up and cut the triplet. Wings flapped harder, and the creature thrashed around the room, running into pillars of rock no one knew was there. Blackstar followed, trying to hit the giant bird based on what he heard. Happily, the battle stayed away from Stein, on the far side of the cavern, closer to where the tunnels rose towards the summit.

Rock fell, hitting assassin, weapon, and bird with thuds and moans as the three scampered around the room, trying to simultaneously defend and attack as sound became as helpful as sight, and the fight became a test of intuition and luck. A bird's cry coupled with Blackstar's scream, "You won't get away from me, now, you fat chicken!" and Stein assumed the bird had tried to fly away, into a tunnel.

Sound meshed again, into a cacophony of metal, flesh, and rock, until a deep, barely perceptible rumble grew into a deafening thunder, blocking out everything, as the tunnels shook. The sound was just waning when Stein eardrums were assaulted by Tsubaki's scream; "Blackstar!" and the tremors threw the Demon Weapon into Stein's tunnel, the tip of the ninja sword cutting off a lock of Stein's hair.

"Tsu-ba-ki" Stein spat through gritted teeth, "When we get back, you will teach you partner how to _hold on to you_ during a fight, so as not to skewer random bystanders!" he ended in a roar. Tsubaki cringed, and Stein raged on. By the time he'd finished listing the first two hundred things objectionable about the blue-haired assassin, the rumbling had stopped.

Tsubaki, voice saturated with worry interrupted, babbling, "Professor Stein, I'm sorry, really sorry, and I'll try to get Blackstar to improve, but please, I think he's really hurt! When I flew out of his grip, his wavelength quivered in pain, which it _never_ does, not even with my brother's Enchanted Sword! Then our resonance cut off, and I can't get it back, at all! What if he's-"

"_Shut up!"_ Stein roared at the hysterical weapon. "He's alive. The triplet-" Stein searched the cavern for the triplet's soul. It had been gone earlier, so he'd assumed it was dead, and the unmoving assassin's Soul was an unconscious Blackstar, but now the triplet's Soul had transformed, and was zooming up the mountain.

"Shit," Stein muttered.

"Professor Stein?" Tsubaki asked. He ground his teeth together. Blackstar would have to be rescued, and he'd have to figure out what was going on with the dead triplet's Soul, because Souls simply didn't travel without bodies.

"Transform and go help Blackstar. A good slap should bring him around. I have something else I need to do," and as the young girl set off on the rubble, calling Blackstar's name, Stein increased his Soul Perception to follow the Soul.

Blackstar awoke noisily, throwing rubble left and right, smacking Tsubaki across the face, earning himself the suggested slap and a hysterical hug. While the two got everything sorted out, Stein watched with horror as the Soul reached the peak of the volcano and merged with two already combined Souls, fighting a very familiar weapon-meister pair. Maka and Soul were doing well, but they were faltering even before the third triplet's power began fuse with its siblings. Stein observed Kid, Liz and Patty zooming up the side of the mountain, on Beelzebub, Stein guessed.

They might help, but the kids would need help fast. Stein realized he and Marie would have to fight the triple triplet. But where was she? Anger rushed through Stein's veins. She agreed to go assist Maka and Soul after her shift with Blackstar and Tsubaki! He wouldn't stand for a partner who broke their promises right and left!

He searched for her Soul, because whether he wanted to or not, they'd both be needed, even if Marie only kept the kids in line while Stein fought. Agitation filled him, as he still couldn't find her. Blackstar yelled, "Well, Sell-our-Souls man, what do we do now?"

"It's _Science Of Scars_, idiot, and go help Maka and Soul. Kid's team is on their way. The triplets have combined. They're at the summit. Get moving," Stein snapped. Blackstar was immediately on his way, swinging Tsubaki and hooting about how one triplet wasn't a glorious enough opponent for him, but three was better, and how he was going to surpass god, and how he had to go save his subjects, again.

Stein tuned him out as the assassin, apparently no worse for getting beaned by a boulder, bounded off up the mountain. Slowly following, Stein scanned again, and finally saw Marie's Soul. His annoyance was overwhelmed by relief, though he quickly quashed the compassionate emotion. Then, information clicked into place, and he connected Marie's tardiness with her flickering Soul and the rumbling of the cavern.

One of the central tunnels must have entirely collapsed, trapping Marie underneath. From the looks of her Soul, she was unconscious, and had been that way for at least a few minutes. Stein gulped, feeling an odd tightening in his chest, one he identified as worry, before he dismissed the idea as ridiculous. He would never be worried about that ever-fretting hammer. Crrick, he turned the screw in his head, blatantly ignoring the this nervous tic of his.

Still, he knew that even for the three best Shibusen student fighting pairs, after the battles he'd witnessed, they would be hard pressed to take on a normal pre-kishin, let alone this multi-pre-kishin monster. Fine. He would go look for Marie, but she'd get a good lecture from him later. Really, it's not rocket science to dodge a pebble falling towards you.

He'd just started walking when he saw Marie's Soul shift back into consciousness. Good. Maybe she'd actually get up now. Then, Stein saw as her Soul wavelength spiked, going haywire. Stein had seen this kind of thing before, in people who were badly injured. He broke into a dead sprint.

** Am I cruel? A cliffhanger plus a ridiculously late chapter? Yeah, probably. Still, writers block + three viruses and pink eye in both eyes in the course of two weeks + basketball season starting = virtually 0 writing time and a VERY late chapter! I'm sorry!**

**The 'metal net' and such is just another way of saying there were a ton of daggers Kid had to dodge, so many it was practically a net**

**I know she had chain scythe mode, and I thought I recalled her having one end in a spiked ball, like a mace, so that's the image there.**

**Happy Halloween! I hope you enjoyed the fights and the laughs! R&R please!**

**Look forward to next chapter's Finale of the Triplet Fight, with Stein and Marie battling a triple pre-kishin! **


	7. Triplet Fight: Versus Dragon and Ocean

**Dissection SOS: Science Of Scars**

Chapter 7

Triplet Fight: Versus Dragon and Ocean

Marie's Soul flickered as Stein sprinted through tunnel after tunnel trying to reach the place where she lay unconscious. Stein used intuition more than anything to know where the tunnels were, which caused him to get scrapes as he over- or undershot the tunnel openings. He didn't pay attention to the blood running down his arms. He'd experimented enough for it to be a normal sensation.

He knew he was getting close when rock dust filled the air and he coughed. He tripped, and fell face first into a crumbling wall of loose rocks at full speed. Sensing her quaking Soul on the other side of the rocks, he put a hand to the wall and sent his soul wavelength into it, exploding it. The tunnel shuddered, and the ceiling behind him collapsed, letting sunlight split the dust-filled air.

Stein ran through the dust towards her crumpled form. Grudging meister though he was, seeing the bloody body of his weapon pained him. He resolved to concoct something particularly nasty for Blackstar.

He lifted Marie gently, the way he would the open body of a dissection subject. He carried her through the dust out into the open air, searching for the nearest water source. Marie stirred, and she unconsciously leaned into him. Stein surprised to find his arms curling around her naturally, without being forced.

He looked at her face, scrunched slightly in pain. Then, Stein felt his large foot catch on a root, and they pitched forward, Marie flying out of his arms. He heard a splash, and looked up to see Marie had flown into a stream. The cold water shocked her out of unconsciousness.

She sat up, groaning. She wiped her wet hand across her forehead and looked around. When she saw him lying face-first in the ground, she asked, "Stein? Did you get me out of the tunnel?"

Stein was relieved to feel the return of his usual dispassionate attitude. Smirking, he replied, "Of course. After all, weapon pairs look out for each other, don't they?" and he watched her expression light up. He guessed she was feeling so happy because he'd accepted her as his current weapon, so to help her keep herself in check, he continued, "though it was mainly because the triplets combined and we now have to fight them, since the kids are at their limit…" he trailed off as her disappointment showed briefly, to his enjoyment.

Then, she realized exactly what he'd said. "A triple pre-kishin?" He grunted his assent. He saw the effect the words had on her, and he resisted the urge to document the way her expressions cleared, becoming serious as she locked away her emotions for the fight. She squared her shoulders, blood still running down her face and arms. He swallowed, feeling his mouth go dry as her eyes locked with his.

"Ready?" he asked, his voice low, only from his dry throat and the dust he'd inhaled, he assured himself. Marie smiled, her expression promising a painful death for the TPK (triple-pre-kishin).

At her silent nod, he looked around with his Soul Perception ability, and saw the students slowly forcing the TPK down the mountain. Right now, they appeared to be fighting in the jungle, about three miles away, on the side of the island opposite the tourist town.

She stood up and transformed, ignoring her injuries. The hammer spun in midair and Stein reached up his hand, catching her easily. As he ran towards the fight, he noticed the surface of the hammer was slightly warped, because of Marie's injuries. The only really weak point he noticed was a tiny crack below his hands, towards the very end of the hammer.

He'd have to be careful not to let her get hit there. It could cause problems not even he could fix. They were silent as they ran so he considered tactics. Fighting in the jungle would be a disadvantage in terms of offense. The scythe or the hammer would get caught in the vines and there wasn't room for Kid's Death Cannons, and if Blackstar got close enough to hit the TPK with the katana, he'd likely be skewered.

Yet, the trees could provide cover. It all came back to weaknesses. Without knowing what abilities his enemy had, he couldn't plan the optimal attack plan. "Wait until we see what it can do. You'll be able to formulate a plan then, even if you're in the thick of fighting. Planning is what you do best, after all," Marie said. He appreciated her words, and ignored her muttered, "Though your plans usually include dissecting someone,"

Stein frowned in confusion. She'd practically read his mind. As he focused on her, he realized his Soul had adapted to her familiar wavelength without conscious thought, and they resonated strongly. Finally, they reached the others, and Stein paused just behind a tree to assess the situation.

He immediately saw how the TPK had taken attributes from each triplet: fire, knives, and wings. The creature was massive, with strong legs as thick as tree trunks, that from their sheen and black color, Stein knew were obsidian. Its head was also sculpted from the black rock, ridges sticking up and sharp points protruding into a dangerous reptilian face.

Curved spikes rose around round nostrils on a wide, flat snout. The eyes above the snout had two lids, the outer one obsidian, the inner one a clear, glass-like substance that stayed closed over the pits of molten lava that were the piercing orange-red eyes.

The body was lean, but from the way the creature moved, it was incredibly strong and fairly agile. Its body was covered in knives of varying sizes, used as scales to cover its hide. The blades around where its body met its legs hung down over the obsidian, like a mail shirt. Enormous sheets of obsidian-plated flesh were unfurled, arching off the back of the creature and spread, ready to flap, launching the creature into flight.

Analytical though he was, Stein couldn't help being a little awestruck at seeing it. It was a real dragon, and it was alive. Oh, how he wanted to experiment on it! "Stein," Marie's warning snapped him out of it and he saw her raising her eyebrows at him. He nodded, and looked around for the students.

Kid stood just to the side of the head, where the dragon would have to turn it's head to see him as he shot. Maka ran underneath it, dodging it's kicks and slashing at the belly, though from the sparks, Stein guessed the obsidian was holding up against the scythe. Blackstar ran up the dragon's tail, dodging the spikes on it and sliding the katana under the knives at regular intervals.

Then, just as Stein was thinking he actually might not need to help, the dragon turned, and shot fire from its mouth at Kid, who nearly dodged. One sleeve of his suit caught fire, and he ran behind a tree to be out of range while he put it out then freaked out over the asymmetry. At least he had that much sense, Stein thought, rolling his eyes. He began formulating a plan.

Turning its attention to the other two, the dragon flicked its tail, and Blackstar stumbled the tiniest bit, which would have been fine, if not for the knives under his feet, which also moved. He twisted, trying to dodge the next spike, but ended up slamming right into the tallest spike of the tail, its point just missing his side. Unfortunately for the assassin, the lower part of the spike caught him in between his legs, and Stein couldn't help snickering as Blackstar fell off the tail. The dragon tried to squish him by stepping on him, but Tsubaki switched to enchanted sword mode as Blackstar swung, putting his whole body into the motion. An entire half of the leg was sheered off, and lava-blood dripped out.

Stein knew his plan was risky, based on pure conjecture, so he ran through the potential risks again. The step it had tried to take to crush Blackstar threw it off balance. It wobbled, and then sank to the ground. Maka dived out from underneath, but one ankle lay trapped under it. She turned white, and Soul yelled he would transform to help, when Stein stepped out, ready to go ahead with his plan.

His muscles bunched as he swung Marie, sending her smashing into the side of the dragon, three feet above Maka's trapped foot. Maka's pain filled gaze took in the stitched-up lab coat and the yellow lightning bolt on the end of the hammer he held. "We'll take it from here," Stein said and Maka nodded.

Blackstar shouted, "Don't you come into this battle halfway through and steal my chance at surpassing god!"

Kid stuck his head out from behind his tree, saying "And you're going to surpass god by killing a dragon? When you can't even stand up?"

Blackstar made a face, tried to stand, winced, and sat back down clutching his belly. Soul piped up, "Yeah, just let him do the work. Besides, we killed them all the first time around,"

Maka continued Soul's sentence, "and the assignment was only to kill them. It didn't say anything about if the triplets resurrected themselves,"

Stein shrugged. However they wanted to excuse sitting out the next portion of the fight was up to them. Defeating this monster was up to him and Marie. He grinned maniacally, and scaled a tree. He ran along the branch and jumped to another, staying as high as he could. For his plan to work, he had to get the dragon into the air.

"Knives are for those who are to pathetic to use swords!" Stein called out behind him. The growl told him he had the dragon's attention.

"Cooled lava is just plain old regular rock, like you," he heard the dragon shift, standing on it's three feet.

"You might have wings, but since you can't fly, you're as helplessly grounded as a penguin. You might as well just waddle around, throwing up fish for baby dragons," Stein continued. He heard the snap of the wings unfurling completely, and the crunch of the legs bending.

He began sprinting through the treetops, making sure the dragon would be able to see him once airborne. Sure enough, his theory was correct, and his reverse psychology insulting worked. The crack of rock as the dragon jumped was deafened by the concussive force of the wings beating down.

Air shoved the students into the trees around the clearing, and threw Stein off balance. He stumbled on a branch, his next jump falling short. He swung Marie in an attempt to catch the branch as he fell, and his arms tugged painfully as she caught hold. He twisted, swinging himself like a small child on monkey-bars, and managed to get an arm around the branch. He glanced back up the mountain, towards the clearing, and saw the massive dragon in the air, not far above the trees.

He saw now how the creature could keep itself aloft. Somehow, it had ignited flames just beneath its wings, and the hot air the flames produced travelled upward, getting caught in the wings and holding the massive dragon up. Its eyes locked on Stein as he got his feet underneath him on the branch.

Seeing the flames for himself gave him another idea. Shucking his lab coat with his observations inside, he let it drop to the jungle floor, where he could get it later. "Ready?" He growled to Marie.

"Whenever you are," she replied.

"Then the fun begins now," he said, an emotion he'd long since forgotten about filling him. The excitement, the anticipation of a fight, and the feeling of adrenaline running through his veins made him feel invincible. Even though he'd fought on his own plenty, he reflected that there was nothing quite like taking on a challenging opponent with your weapon at the ready.

He turned and took off through the trees, heading down the slope towards the ocean. His instincts told him to move, and he jumped to the side, running diagonally for a bit, before switching directions again. A whoosh of air told him he'd been right, and flame from the dragon's mouth sprung up where he'd been standing. He laughed, enjoying the thrill of it all.

He was now reaching the end of the thick forest, where trees were few and far between. Not far ahead, he could see the long stretch of bare beach. Jumping from the tree, he flipped through the air, landing easily on the dirt at the edge of the trees. The dragon roared, having lost him, so Stein backed up from the trees, shouting, "Watch out, I think your 'scales' are melting in that heat!" and the dragon saw him and growled, its lips pulling back to reveal rows of flame-tipped blades for fangs. He saw broadswords, katanas, daggers, machetes and the like acting as mismatched teeth.

He turned and sprinted down towards the beach. His plan was simple. If he could get the dragon's wings into the water, the flames would go out, and the wings wouldn't be able to support it anymore. His feet hit sand. The dragon would be heavy enough to drown, if it were far enough out at sea. He was only a hundred meters from the darker line of sand where the white sand hardened with the touch of water, when his pace placed his foot over a small hole in the sand.

An unhappy, and surprisingly large, crab reached a leg out and hooked it into part of Stein's foot. With a cry, he fell forward, kicking the crab back across the beach. Anger slashed through him. He scowled at his bleeding foot, and pushed himself up. He heard a thud, and turned to see the dragon had beaten him to the sea, and was standing between him and it.

Stein clenched his hands and prepared to drive the dragon back into the water instead of leading it to its blue-green death. Then he realized Marie wasn't in his hands. The anger he'd felt was also from the hammer, whom he now saw imbedded in the sand, the shaft of the hammer sticking up.

The dragon stood over her, its maw dripping lava saliva as it glanced from Stein to Marie. A shiver ran through Stein. He'd underestimated the dragon's intelligence. The triplets had learned from their earlier fights. They now knew to separate the weapon and the meister. Stein smirked, knowing they had no idea he was a formidable foe in his own right, Marie or no Marie.

Just as he prepared to shoot some of his Soul wavelength toward the dragon, his mind flashed back to the crack on her handle, near the end, the part that now stuck up from the sand. If he hurt the dragon, it would collapse on her, maiming or killing her. Stein's jaw locked, and he ran straight at the dragon. He'd have to time this perfectly. The dragon opened its mouth right in front of Stein, and he could see lava rolling over an obsidian tongue. The black tongue moved, forming a path for the fire rumbling in its throat to move quickly thorough.

He was almost to Marie, right under the dragon's head when the flames rushed out of its throat, speeding down its tongue, evaporating the moisture in the air. The flames were inches away from Stein when his hand found Marie and he screamed, "Experimental Ectoplasm!" and the funky soul-looking creature sprouted up around Stein and his partner just in time to absorb the flames.

He maintained the ectoplasm shield as he tugged Marie out of the sand. Through their resonance, he felt her annoyance wouldn't be quickly forgotten, though it was put aside for now. "Let's finish this," they said in unison. His hands moved on her, and she readied herself to hit as hard as she could.

His arm muscles stretched and pulled as he propelled her through the air, using his entire body to give her the momentum she needed. Just before the top of her arc, he released the ectoplasm, and she smashed into the dragon's jaw. The crunch of rock and the squelch of the shards piercing through the side of its mouth were silent to Stein as he used all his strength to control Marie's descent.

As soon as her momentum allowed it, he sprinted underneath the dragon, towards the sea. The sand dragged at his feet as one of the dragon's back legs kicked in at him. He ripped Marie forward through the air. She collided with the foot, the dragon's toenail daggers scraped against Marie's stone, and she gasped. Nevertheless, the scientist kept running, the leg having been forced away.

He sped up when he reached the hard-packed sand. His feet had just met the surf when the dragon had managed to fully turn around. Greenish blood covered half of its smashed face, and it bunched its legs for another takeoff. Stein pushed against the surf. He had to be careful here. He had to get far enough out that it would drown, but make sure it didn't land on top of him.

The water was up to his chest when he started swimming, and the first buffet of the dragon's wings shoved the water, and Stein in it, out further to sea. Something tugged at Stein, and he realized he'd been pushed into a riptide. He took a huge gulp of breath as his heart raced and his body was pulled out to sea faster than he could have swam. As he tried to calm his racing heart, he knew if he could just keep from being pulled under by the riptide, he'd be able to lure the dragon far enough out to sea. Once again, the key would be timing,

The dragon caught up to him as he decided this. Marie, still in his hands, sent him a panicked warning through their connection. She was underwater, and couldn't breathe. Stein cursed, and tried to bring her to the surface, but she was caught in an even more powerful part of the riptide than he, and was being pulled down.

In weapon form, she could hold her breath longer, but she'd already been under for a few minutes, and she needed air, Stein knew. He could feel the pain burning in her lungs through their resonance. He tugged harder, but as is the case with riptides, the more you struggle, the worse it gets. His careful balance was thrown off and his arms were tugged after her, into the water.

The water was clear, and Stein's eyes could see they'd just passed the beach's drop-off, where the sea floor dipped far, far beneath them. The water above them became suddenly very hot, and he twisted his head, seeing the water above them boil. The yellow-red color above the water told him the dragon was trying to burn them alive, in the water.

He could feel the hot water beginning to slowly burn his skin, but he was grateful, because the sudden temperature change in the water had caused a shift in the currents, and he and Marie were released from the riptide. Carefully, he swam upward with one hand, kicking both his legs powerfully, dragging Marie below him with his free hand.

Breath rushed into his lungs and he pulled Marie up, fighting the resistance the water posed and he heard her take an enormous breath the second she was out of the water. The splashes of their surfacing had alerted the dragon to their position, not too far from where the water was still bubbling.

"If you want us, come and get us!" Stein shouted, his voice hoarse with accidentally swallowed seawater. The dragon grunted. Stein could see the chase and the hit to its jaw had angered it to the point where it was no longer thinking straight. Good. It flapped higher and higher, until it was high above them, then it stopped the flames beneath its wings, folded them against its side, and fell down towards the pair in the water. Its remaining front leg was stretched out in front of it, reaching for them.

The weight of the dragon's body let it fall fast, gaining speed as it fell, the distance disappearing between it and its prey. Stein said gruffly, "Lighting Rope, Marie," he knew now that only the super-enhanced senses the technique gave him would allow him to dodge the monster.

"But Stein, it might wreck your nervous system-" she began.

"_Do it_," he growled, urgency and anger lacing his voice. She transformed and Stein felt her enhancing his every sense, and he used this to cut through the water impossibly fast, until he reached a piece of coral that stuck out above the waves. He then climbed out and turned towards the dragon, which had shifted slightly to account for the change, but not quite enough.

Out of the water, and using lightning rope, he was able to run across the sea, jumping over waves, salt stinging in his eyes, as he ran towards where the dragon would enter the water. It had been about twenty seconds since the dragon had begun its fall, and just as Stein came close to the dragon, its front foot hit the water.

The incredible velocity it'd fallen at pushed the water aside as the dragon began to fall into the waves, the pressure of the air around it and its initial contact shoving the water out like a tsunami, and Stein increased his speed towards the growing wave of water and he jumped, barely landing on top of the wall of water, now up to the middle of the dragon's belly as it fell. Stein fell down the wall of water, his feet slightly inside it, to slow himself and remain upright.

He whipped his arm out, and Marie's altered form slammed into its side, sending his intensely multiplied Soul wavelength into the dragon, the force shattering half the daggers, creating cracks in the obsidian, and holes in the wing nearest him. He glanced up, and saw the wall of water get too high, and begin to curl in, towards the dragon, Stein, and Marie.

Judging the decreasing size of the opening, Stein knew he had only seconds left. Dread curled in his stomach, sending tingles through his limbs. Neither he nor Marie could survive the force of that much water hitting them against the hard sea floor. He grabbed the dragon's back leg as it slid past him, and sent Soul Thread Sutures to attach the largest parts of the dragon to the sea floor to ensure it got pulverized under the water.

He got his feet under him just in time, and he used the force of the dragon hitting the seafloor and his most powerful jump to try to clear the wall of water. The topmost part of the wall was already falling back down towards him, droplets splashing him as he rose towards the last piece of sky he could see. Water curled in on itself, and Stein had barely cleared the hole when he felt his body finally being stopped by gravity, and pulled back down. He twisted, and saw the sea below him was collapsing into the hole it had been forced to make.

Such was the force of the dragon's fall that all the water that had been forced back now returned at once, forming a gigantic maelstrom. He knew the whirlpool could only last so long, given the force with which it had begun it would eventually reverse, and hoped that by the time he and Marie hit the water, the force would have reversed itself.

Marie transformed out of lightning rope back to her normal hammer and Stein instantly felt as if a bag had been pulled over his head with the sudden removal of his enhanced senses. His head spun with the shock and he could feel himself close to losing consciousness. Marie began to slide from his grip. He tried to focus, but his use of the lightening rope had tired him out. He didn't have any strength left.

Hitting the water decided his state of consciousness for him, and he released his Soul to unconsciousness as he felt the water shove him away. The last thing he saw was long blonde hair floating in front of him in the water as a warm arm slid around his chest, dragging him through the water.

**Wow. That was **_**way**_** longer than anticipated. I hope I did Stein and Marie's awesome fighting skills justice! Enjoy! Thanks to everyone, for reading, reviewing, alerting, etc!**

**Now that they've all had some pretty intense battles, the characters will kick back and have the long awaited vacation day! Next up there'll be squabbles, scheming, and of course, plenty of romance!**


	8. Questionable Feelings

Dissection SOS

Chapter 8: Questionable Feelings

Stein woke to the sound of the obstreperous assassin claiming his awesomeness. "The man who will surpass God didn't need sight to fight, and was victorious!"

Unsurprisingly, Stein's voice wasn't the only one that growled, "Shut it!" to Blackstar. Stein was _not_ in the mood for this. He felt like he'd been pounded with a meat hammer, the kind used to tenderize chicken before you eat it. His throat was raw from salt water and _everything_ ached like no tomorrow.

"Professor Stein, you're awake?" Tsubaki asked, tentatively, clearly expecting to be yelled at. He sighed.

"I am now," he sat up and glared at Blackstar.

The blue-haired boy just laughed and said, "He would've been up earlier if Miss Marie had let me autograph him! My signature does wonders-" Tsubaki shot Stein an apologetic glance and dragged Blackstar out the door. Thank goodness. Wait, door?

Memories of the recent fights slowly trickled into his brain. He sat up, and looked around, to find himself in his hotel room. Kid, Liz, Patty, Soul, and Maka all stood around his bed. Kid explained, "Marie swam to shore, pulling you along behind, helped along by some massive waves," Soul snickered, and Stein shot him an expressionless stare.

Guessing the reason for the scythe's mirth, Stein said, "Soul, it is a partner's duty, for both a meister and a weapon, to assist the other when necessary. If you find it embarrassing to be saved by a girl, then maybe you should pick a different partner,"

He was amused by the anger that crossed the white-haired boy's face. Soul said fiercely, "I'll never pick another partner. Maka is _my_ meister, and she'll always be!" Stein almost smiled when he saw, behind Soul, Maka blushed. He hadn't expected to get an opportunity to start his experiments with them so soon.

"Keep that attitude, Soul. For the sake of your partnership and because, after all, you wouldn't want to end up like Maka's father, would you?" Stein said, relishing the way Soul shifted uncomfortably and blushed.

Soul muttered, "Maka's father has nothing to do with this-" and Stein grinned, enjoying this experiment enough to want to record some of the more interesting details. He reached down to pull out his clipboard, when he realized he wasn't wearing his lab coat.

At his frown, Liz said suggestively, "I'm sure you noticed Miss Marie isn't here. She went to go find your lab coat for you, since you seem to have _misplaced_ it yesterday," and she grinned wider when Patty giggled.

She couldn't be suggesting what it sounded like she was. He and Marie didn't have that kind of relationship, and had been fighting together, not… he shivered at the thought. He frowned at his train of thought and returned to the situation at hand. Blandly, he said "Of course. I dropped it because I planned to drown the dragon, and didn't want my observations to get wet," but Liz just grinned and shook her head.

Before Stein could do anything else, the door opened, and the blonde walked in, hair tangled from a run. She walked up to him, a relieved expression on her face that, to Stein's puzzled interest, quickly turned to anger. She stalked forward, and dropped his folded lab coat on the end of the bed.

Kid suggested, "Guys, lets go,"

Liz chimed in, "Yeah! Lets all go to the beach!" Maka began to protest as they walked out of the room, but Stein heard Liz interrupt her, "Don't worry, I'm sure there's _something_ I can lend you!" Then a punch to his shoulder sent him sprawling across the bed and the door shut.

Tangled in the sheets, he looked up at Marie, who though she gulped hard at the sight of him trying to get out of the sheets, still managed to look angry. "What was that for?" Stein asked calmly, hoping to gain some insight into the situation.

She snorted. "What was that for? Do you recall yesterday, when you were more concerned with getting revenge on a _crab_, than the fact that I was about to get crushed by a dragon?" though Stein tried to intervene and explain the facts behind her hyperbole, she just spoke louder, continuing her tirade, "And then the riptide? We both almost died! You're capable of thinking of safer strategies!"

Finally untangling himself, he stood up. He got a word in as she drew a breath, "But that's what makes it fun, when all the otherwise untestable variables come into play-"

She cut him off again, punctuating her sentences with small steps towards him, "Fun!? The _untestable_ variables are the ones you can't predict, as in _the ones that get people killed_! And you used lightning rope when I specifically warned you what would happen! You almost died from an overloaded nervous system! Then you almost drowned, and then stayed unconscious for over half a day! What am I supposed to do with you?"

By that time, she'd gotten all the way to Stein, who didn't back up. He was beginning to get irritated, no matter how irrational his mind told him the emotion was. "My strategy worked, didn't it?" She made no move to acknowledge this fact, and Stein decided to teach her a lesson. He'd noticed how she'd mentioned how worried she'd been, and he'd seen her emotional instability today. If she wanted to make him mad, she'd pay. Besides, this could prove to be an interesting experiment.

This in mind, he smirked at her, and stepped closer, erasing all but a millimeter between them. "As for what you're supposed to do with me? Well, Marie, I'd say you could do whatever you wanted. Or at least, you could _try_," he trailed off, raising his eyebrows and tilting his head.

Her anger drained from her face instantly, and a blush spread across her cheeks as she stared into his eyes. He watched as her gold eyes widened. A grin spread across his face, and he realized he enjoyed teasing her, though he wasn't entirely sure _why_ he had this affect on her, since they had only ever been just friends.

Then, her eyes suddenly flicked down to his lips, and Stein felt a wave of tingling heat pass through his body. He swallowed, finding his mouth dry. Was it a skewed perception, or was she leaning closer? Her head was tilting slightly, and he was suddenly regretting trying to tease her, and wished he were as far away from her as possible.

The door crashed open and Maka demanded, " Miss Marie, would you please tell Liz this is _not _an appropriate- Oh!" She'd seen their position and Stein hurriedly pushed Marie back a couple feet so Maka didn't get the wrong idea. "I-I'll just come back later-" she was about to ease back out the door when Stein stopped her.

"Wait, Maka. Marie would be happy to help you," he shot Marie a pointed glance, who returned a confused and hurt expression. He nodded his head at Maka, and then saw the garment she was holding. He raised an eyebrow. Though he certainly agreed with the girl, it might help his experiments along, so he said, "Maka, isn't that what girls your age normally wear to the beach? It's fine,"

She muttered, "Yeah, well-endowed girls looking for boyfriends,"

"Nonsense," Marie, said, walking up to Maka and leading her out the door, "You'll look lovely in it," Stein was interested to see that this mollified Maka, since she hadn't said anything about being worried about _that_. Women. He sighed and stretched. He closed the door behind them and walked over to his suitcase, planning his experiments for the rest of the day.

He walked down the pier across the street from the hotel and onto the sand. He wore brown Bermuda shorts, men's slip-on sandals, and an old shirt he'd brought in case something like this happened. He frowned at the dark gray t-shirt. It was well worn, and clung to his torso tightly enough to leave little to the imagination. His bare arms held no clipboard, and he was almost regretting his decision to record his observations mentally, but he didn't want anyone know he was experimenting on them.

He kept an eye out for crab holes, but this beach was mercifully free of them. Kid, Blackstar, and Soul stood chatting close to the pier, clearly waiting for the girls. Kid wore low-riding black trunks with a Shinigami face on each side, perfectly symmetrical. Blackstar wore dark blue trunks that, in Stein's opinion, made his hair color look even more ridiculous. Soul wore crimson trunks the color of his eyes, increasing the intensity of his gaze, Stein noticed as he took a seat just within earshot.

"Volleyball tournament? Boy and girl versus boy and girl? Cool, I'm game," Soul drawled.

"But the numbers…" Kid said, "Blackstar, you'll pair up with Tsubaki, Soul with Maka, and Liz and I, since Patty'll be too entranced by the sand to play."

"That's not a very big tournament," Soul commented.

"That I'll win!" Blackstar yelled. The other two sighed.

"There could be _eight_ people playing," Kid said and jerked his head at Stein. Stein raised his eyebrows, making sure it appeared he was looking towards the souvenir shops along the edge of the beach.

"Eh, why not?" Soul asked.

Blackstar shouted, "Hey four-eyes, I know you're listening. As the man who will surpass God, I know these things. So will you play? You and Miss Marie?" Stein turned his eyes directly towards the boys. He wouldn't pass up a chance to implement his plans close-up. He nodded. Then he saw the girls walking down the pier, and flicked his eyes, giving the boys a heads up.

They turned around and were stunned by the sight of their partners. Liz was in the lead, in a leopard print string bikini. Patty wore a similar white bikini, with lime green trim. Both wore bikini bottoms that tied on both sides in bows. Tsubaki wore a slightly more modest halter-top style bikini with girls' short swim shorts that both hugged her curves, in a navy blue so dark it was almost black, emphasizing the pale hue of her skin.

Maka came last, her face red with embarrassment at her attire. She glanced nervously at Soul, whose jaw had dropped at the sight of her swimsuit. She wore an emerald green strapless bikini top that wrapped around her chest in a single band crinkled around the center. A white bow was centered on her chest, partially covering the clasp of the swimsuit top, in the center of her chest, styled so a sizable hole was left to display the skin between her breasts. The green fabric wrapped around the ring that created the hole.

Stein shot poor Soul a glance, and saw the boy gulp at what Stein knew must be a tantalizing view of his crush. Soul's eyes drifted downward and Stein had to fight off laughter as the boy took in his meister's emerald swimskirt, which was even shorter than her usual plaid skirt and hung straight down, clinging to her skin. From his position on the ground, Stein knew Maka hadn't caved to a ridiculous suggestion from Liz because he could see there were regular white swim bottoms attached to the skirt, hidden just out of Soul's line of sight. Nevertheless, blood the color of his swim shorts was trickling out of the scythe's nose.

"Welcome to paradise," Blackstar muttered before they were in earshot. Kid was freaking out about the deliberate lack of symmetry of Liz's leopard print top. Stein couldn't hold back his laughter now, and he almost missed the initial exchanges between the pairs.

"Come swim with your partner and God!" Blackstar yelled, grabbing Tsubaki's hand and pulling her after him.

"Since you said partner first, sure" Tsubaki said, easily keeping up with his sprint.

Patty screamed in joy and threw herself towards the ideal sculpting sand, near the surf, and started constructing sand giraffes. Stein sweatdropped.

Liz was trying to mollify Kid as he made his complaints about her clothing choice. Stein was about to chuck something, _anything_ at the young shinigami to make him shut up, when Liz did the job by saying exasperatedly, "Would you rather I just take it off?" Kid turned red, and spluttered about how no, that wouldn't be necessary, though Stein was willing to bet the teenager was silently assenting.

Liz and Kid walked off towards a volleyball net after Liz produced a volleyball from behind her back and proposed a one-on-one game before the tournament. Maka walked hesitantly up to Soul, alternating between glancing down, embarrassed, and shooting him glares daring him to laugh.

"Wow, uh, Maka," was all Soul was able to manage. Apparently, the lack of insults was enough for the blonde meister, and she smiled a tiny smile, and flicked her eyes towards the ocean. Soul shook his head and nodded towards the volleyball net, where Kid and Liz were already playing. She smiled and nodded, and they ran over to join Kid and Liz.

Intrigued by their wordless conversation, Stein turned on his Soul perception, hypothesizing that they were resonating. They were communicating without words, after all. To his surprise, he found that they weren't. He was concentrating so hard on the retreating Souls that he didn't notice someone sitting down next to him until she spoke.

"Adorable, aren't they? That's a sign of truly knowing someone, that ability to understand what the other one is thinking, just by their expression," Marie said, her face hopeful, yet sad. She chuckled when Stein jumped at finding her there beside him. She continued, "They'd make a cute couple, wouldn't they?" Stein grunted an assent, finding his attention inexplicably drawn from the students to the teacher.

Oddly, he felt his face heat up slightly as he saw Marie's outfit. Like him, she wore her swimsuit under other clothes. Gold-colored straps barely peeking out from the shoulders of a loose neon blue sheer t-shirt. Through it, he could see hints of a one-piece swimsuit with a twist on the chest and open sides that curved in, exposing most of her toned stomach. She wore black short shorts that were almost entirely covered by the shirt. Her hair was pulled back in a French braid.

He was shaken out of his reverie by a whisper he was sure she didn't intend him to hear, "That special kind of connection is something I'll _never _have," she said, resting her head on her knees. He decided to ignore her comment.

After a minute of her gloominess, he came up with an idea. He'd been afraid she would mess up his experiments, but maybe she could help. Stein bet she'd do anything for love, even if it were just helping others find it. A smile spread across his face. Yes, it would add another variable to the already highly complicated equation, but he just couldn't resist.

"I can think of something you can help me with, that will put us both in a better mood," Stein began to persuade her. With that sentence, she looked at him, her expression changing from miserable to breathless, blushing surprise in a heartbeat. He was surprised to realize he was still smiling, a real smile, and leaning back on his hands, letting the muscles of his arms and chest push against the T-shirt.

His pride found her reaction satisfying, and his smile grew. Her eyes widened. This would be fun. "I mean," he began, letting his smile drop to a serious expression, staring straight into her eyes, "Sometimes people… _need_ things. I was hoping you would assist me in alleviating some of these problems," She gasped, and he kept a straight face as he continued, "See, I think these two people need help getting together, and I think we should do something about that," he trailed off carefully, allowing her time to speak.

She did. "St-Stein! What are you saying?" Marie asked, clearly trying, and failing, to keep her voice neutral. Her face was very red and her eyes hopefully skipped across his face.

A weird shift began in Stein's chest, and he quickly continued, "Soul and Maka. You already said they were adorable, and if you gave her the okay to wear that swimsuit, you're already meddling a bit. Why not help me out?" he watched her face closely as he spoke, seeing the rapid change of emotion from disappointed to embarrassed to determined.

She smiled, "Of course I'll help them! They deserve it," she said fondly, looking over at them. Her soft smile as she gazed at their charges caused Stein's heart to throb once, painfully. Then, he shook himself out of it.

"Then come on," he said, his voice slightly lower than usual. Unable to help himself, he grabbed her hand out of the sand and pulled her up, barely waiting until she stood before dragging her towards the volleyball nets.

Stein was writing a tournament schedule in the sand as Marie called everyone over and had everyone lather on sunscreen. Blackstar helped Tsubaki with putting sunscreen on her back, which made the girl shiver. However, when she tried to help him, he stopped her, claiming the man who will surpass God could put sunscreen on his own back. Stein laughed as the boy's face showed pain as the assassin contorted his arm in an attempt to complete his objective.

Kid and Liz helped each other without a second thought, no blushes or awkwardness for Stein to take note of. However, Maka and Soul were a different story entirely. Stein eagerly watched their exchange.

Maka spread sunscreen all over her face, stomach, arms, and legs as Soul snuck glances out of the corner of his eyes as he did the same. Interestingly, she didn't glance at him. Stein supposed Maka would need a bit more nudging before she would capitulate to her feelings, allowing his experiment to continue.

She tried to spread sunscreen on her back as well, but quickly found she couldn't. She sighed and looked towards Tsubaki, who was busy chasing Blackstar, who'd given up without putting sunscreen on his back. She frowned and awkwardly looked around, her eyes locking with Soul's. He walked lazily over to her and said gruffly, "I'll get your back if you'll get mine," and she nodded.

Both had the slightest tinge of pink in their cheeks as he moved to stand behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder. He began gently rubbing sunscreen into her back, causing Maka to shiver as the cold lotion was rubbed into her skin by his large, warm hand. Stein snickered. Her expression was as open as a book, and her Soul even more so.

When he finished, they switched places, and Maka spread sunscreen across his back, her hands running along the muscles and bones of his back, one hand trailing down his spine, making him gasp and shudder. By the time they took their places on one side of the net, opposite Kid and Liz, the two were blushing fiercely.

With no referees, they played by the honor system. Stein wasn't surprised when there were some suspicious declarations of "that was in" or "out, our point" between the competitive couples. The teams faced off against every other pair, and Stein used a special point system involving points scored and wins vs. losses to calculate the winners.

1st place: Kid and Liz

2nd place: Stein and Marie

3rd place: Soul and Maka

4th place: Blackstar and Tsubaki

Blackstar's team lost because he quickly developed a bad sunburn that didn't improve when a dive rubbed sand into it. Soul and Maka worked well together, but Maka's athletic abilities were hard-pressed to hold up on the hot shifting sand as she played a game she'd never played before. In the championship, Stein and Marie were so close to beating Kid and Liz the entire time. At the last minute, Stein and Marie's perfect coordination faltered, and they ran into each other, both trying to get the ball. Of course, the kids found it highly amusing, though Stein's glares quieted their mirth.

As everyone went to go swim in the ocean, Stein recalled that moment. Marie's face had turned into the crook of his neck as he'd fallen forward, her breath sliding down the neck of his shirt and across his collarbones. Her arms grabbed out for anything to still her fall, so one hand ended up tangled in his hair, the other curled on his back. He pushed his arms out to stop their fall, and they landed on either side of Marie's head, jolted from his shoulder as they hit the sand.

Stein soon became aware that one of his knees was just outside one of hers, the other trapped between her legs. The knee in between his legs didn't lay straight after the fall, and he felt her knee bump his thigh as he tried to push himself off of her and the traitorously shifting sand. His mind froze for a few long seconds, until he remembered he needed to get up. Finally, he managed it, but not before receiving chuckles and raised eyebrows from his students.

He gritted his teeth as he neared the surf. The students were already body surfing. He glanced to his right and saw Marie pulling the T-shirt over her head with her hands, and shimming out of her shorts, leaving just her bathing suit. His entire body felt tight, and he tried to mentally shake the tension out. Stein took off his own T-shirt and shorts, folding them up on the sand before going to join the others.

For hours they swam in the ocean, enjoying the waves they never saw in Death City. Stein's slight worries about the odd feelings he was getting around Marie were assuaged when he felt her eyes on him. He knew she was looking at his muscled chest, covered in scars and stiches, and his patched gray swimming trunks, yet he felt no uncertainty, no horrid fluttering, nothing. He sighed happily. Things were back to normal.

Now that things were back to how they should be, he could focus on some of his plans.

Sorry for taking so long to update! I won't bore you with the excuses. Instead, I'll hope you enjoyed the chapter and request that you leave a review! Thanks to everyone who's favorited, reviewed, followed, etc. It really makes my day!

Next time's heads up: This chapter was longer than intended, so I didn't finish all the beach scene plans I had, so probably one more chapter of that, then back to Death City! However, next chapter is when Stein will really start working on getting some of his students together (for reasons that _do_ fit with the plot line since, sadly, he's not the type who would do that otherwise…)

Hope you liked this last chapter and stay tuned-FantasyForever310


	9. Experimental Romance

Dissection SOS

Chapter 9: Experimental Romance

Around lunchtime, Marie called everyone to shore. As per Stein's suggestion, she'd scoped out a café not too far from the beach. Somehow, she managed to herd the students back to the hotel to put on light summer clothes on over their swimsuits, and had everyone outside and ready before Stein could get impatient.

As they walked down the road to the café, Stein whispered to Marie, "Did you make the necessary arrangements?"

"I did," she replied, and grinned. She looked so happy to be in on the plan to help the hapless students realize their feelings for each other. Stein couldn't help but smile a little at her expression, and her infectious attitude was beginning to get to him.

Otherwise, he'd never have said, "Then it must be owned by some middle-aged women with ridiculous romantic notions," and got the expected elbow in the ribs.

"You're the one who proposed the plan in the first place," Marie said, looking at him slyly, "so don't try to pretend you don't like the romance of it too,"

Stein's smile faded. "No, Marie. I'm not doing this for the romance of it. Hell, I'm not even doing it to help them. There are things I have to find out, and this is one of the only ways I can get the information I need," his voice came out tired and slightly sad. It wasn't like he didn't want to help them. Annoying though they were, he did want them to be happy, but what Marie had said reminded him of his purpose here.

Oddly, she didn't respond, and when Stein looked at her, she appeared to be deep in thought. She must be disappointed, now that she knows I don't have the qualities she likes to see in people, Stein thought. Stein's mouth tightened. Though the second part brought him relief, he also felt disturbed, almost angry with himself for disappointing her. Which, of course, was highly irrational.

Upon entering the café, Stein saw the place was perfect. He could put his plans into action here. His evil smile went unnoticed by the teens absorbed in trying to understand their surroundings.

The café was separated into sections with tables of two or three, each with its own little nook. These nooks ringed the wall in three sections, one against the wall, the nooks created in indentations in the wall, creating a square broken only by two doors, in front and back, and a hallway for restrooms.

Leaving room for a passageway for waiters and customers, there was a smaller square inside the outer square. It was far wider, and separated into nooks on the outer side, and nooks on the inside, facing the kitchen in the center of the restaurant.

The kitchen in the center was shaped like a traditional pagoda, formed of stained wood, and concealing the bulk of the cooking equipment and food while letting those in the inner nooks to observe the making of their meal. Stein admired the electrical job. He could see the opening where the cords entered the posts that held up the pagoda, and he assumed the plumbing was similarly engineered.

Stein noticed each nook was painted a different medium-toned color, with a bright but gentle light hanging from the ceiling above each table. Marie told the kids, "It's a seat-yourself restaurant, so go on,"

As the boys started to head off towards a three-person table Stein said, "No. This is a school trip after all, and this time should not just be used for relaxation, but to further develop your relationship with your partner. Understanding one another is a never-ending process. You'll thank me someday," for multiple reasons, Stein thought, almost chuckling.

Blackstar looked disappointed, but grabbed Tsubaki's hand and ran off towards a blue table close to the kitchen. "And spread out," Stein called after them. Soul shrugged and looked at Maka. With a quick series of glances they decided on a red table in the corner on one edge. Marie nudged him and pointed. He realized what she meant and grinned at her. Soul and Maka had chosen a seat that could only be seen from a few tables close by.

"Maybe they already have some plans of their own," Marie whispered happily.

"Hmm. Maybe," Stein hedged as he saw Patty drag Liz and Kid to a black table towards the center of the innermost set of nooks.

Turning his eyes to Marie, he smiled, slightly caught up in the excitement of the plans despite himself. "Nicely picked," he said, as he scanned for a good table. Stein walked towards a table, knowing she would follow. When she stayed beside him, he realized with a shock that he'd inadvertently put his hand on her waist and had been guiding her towards the table.

Panic flitted through Stein's chest before he squashed it. His body just didn't do things he didn't expect anymore. He'd done enough studying biology textbooks and cutting him open to know how the science worked. So why was his body suddenly acting without his permission?

As they sat down, his mind ran through the possibilities. No, his body couldn't be acting by itself, but it could be _re_acting. If something was affecting him on that subtle a level, it was probably something with the surrounding atmosphere. It must be chemicals his body released, in response to something.

Before he could figure out what, Marie interrupted, "Gold?" her voice was soft, curious and slightly hopeful. Her matching expression confirmed the good idea it was to pick this table. His grin spread as his pride was satisfied.

The emotion was so rare outside of his laboratory a few of his mental filters fell away. Or that's what he told himself moments later, "Yeah, gold, like your swimsuit and your eyes," he leaned across the table and put his hand gently on her cheek, gently drawing his finger along the edge of her eye patch as she froze. "Or, at least, the gold of the eye I can see,"

He couldn't help but enjoy the blush that spilled across her cheeks, under his hand, the lips parted in surprise, and the way her eyes seemed to grow impossibly large. Maybe he could do some experiments, to see what stimuli could cause such reactions. The thought of science brought his mind back from the haze it'd gotten lost in, and he coughed awkwardly, withdrawing his hand.

He looked down at his menu, feeling an unwilling blush start in his cheeks. He hated this uncomfortable feeling, this feeling that was almost… vulnerable. A soft laugh had his head snapping up and he saw Marie laughing at his expense. However much he wanted to, he couldn't be mad at her, because her smile was so big and she looked so happy. He felt contentment spread through him as they waited for their waitress.

Stein ordered a tuna sandwich and water. Fish is brain food, after all. Marie only ordered a small peach smoothie. When Stein frowned at her, she shrugged. "I'm not very hungry, Stein," she explained.

"Just don't faint later," was his gruff response.

Then the waitress tried to convince them to buy alcoholic beverages, "After all, what's a vacation without a little fun?" the waitress suggested and winked.

Fun? Thinking of the bird he'd dissected his first day here, he grinned and said, "Oh, there's plenty of fun to be had here. We don't need alcohol," and Marie grimaced and blushed.

Stein was confused until the waitress laughed and said, "Well then!" she winked at Marie and said, "Good job! If he's so enthusiastic, you must be doing something right!" now Stein's face joined Marie's in color. Again.

"Oh, no, that's not what he meant," Marie said quickly.

"Of course not, dearie," the waitress said, clearly not believing it a bit.

Stein considered correcting the misconception, but he thought of something much more fun. As Marie opened her mouth to protest again, Stein interrupted, "Don't worry, Marie. What happened was fun, and I cleaned everything up. Pity we have to go back tomorrow. Oh well, there is similar fun to be had at home, no?" and the waitress gasped. All throughout this little speech, Stein kept his face completely straight, allowing himself to laugh only on the inside.

He watched in delight as Marie spluttered. He could see she understood both sides of his words, and knew there was only one side the waitress would be able to see. Marie looked him in the eye and glared. The glare increased in intensity when she observed the amused glint in Stein's gray eyes.

"We're not going to order alcohol, thank you," Stein said in cold dismissal, not breaking eye contact with his weapon. As soon as the waitress had disappeared around the corner of the inner square of nooks, the expected fist came flying at his face. His hand shot up and caught her fist half an inch from his face. "Not bad," he smirked.

"Stein! Why did you do that? You knew how she would take that!" she hissed, her arm still extended, her fist on his palm.

"Did I now? How can you be so sure she didn't know what I meant?" Stein asked innocently.

"Anyone who doesn't know about your obsession with dissection would automatically take a highly suggestive message from that!" she said, clearly fighting to keep her voice down.

He replied, "Anyone who has highly suggestive things on their mind would, yes. Since you thought of my words that way so quickly, despite knowing my love of dissection, surely _you _must have had such things on the mind," he said, shifting his Soul wavelength to a hair's breadth away from hers, and sent a small wave into her fist.

She shuddered and gasped. "It's interesting," Stein began, his hand tightening around hers, "how Soul wavelengths work. If the frequency is just right, the pair resonates. If it's too far off, pain and injuries are inflicted. However, if just slightly off, it is possible to create a small shock that skews the chemical balance in the body. Since the opposite of pain is pleasure, that is what is received,"

Her eyes were wide and she snatched her hand out of his, scowling. "Judging by your reaction, I'd say I hit the wavelength right on the mark," Stein murmured and smirked.

Her jaw clenched and she spoke with the quiet tone of those too mad to yell. "If you keep up this behavior, Stein, I'll begin to believe what you said this morning wasn't about the kids at all," she sighed, and looked at him helplessly, "I know you feel you're entitled to experiment with everything and everyone in the world, but don't mess with me like this, Stein. I mean it. I have no idea what you think you're doing, but you need to stop it before you hurt me again!"

Anger coursed through Stein. Marie was strong, not fragile. He shouldn't have to treat her like glass. She wouldn't break. "Or what? If I don't stop?" his gray eyes met hers, trying to convey something he couldn't name.

"Then I'll leave. I'll speak to Lord Death and get him to move me somewhere I'll never have to see you again. Who knows? Maybe I'll even get a solo suicide mission. If you tear me apart like that, I will never be the same. And if you had ever cared one bit for me, you would be sad if that happened. But, I suppose I'm just like a dead cat. Only good for dissecting, in your eyes,"

Stein contained his growing anger and said tightly, "Marie, would you please stop being so facetious!"

"Exactly my point!" she interrupted. "You never take me seriously, and you never have. You only ever give a person just enough to keep you from losing them."

"_Marie,_" Stein said, by now thoroughly tired of this, though he could see she spoke the truth, as she saw it.

"I'm going to go check on the kids. Maybe do something to help them. Since, even if I can't have it for myself, I want others to find happiness," the sadness in that last sentence cut through Stein's anger and pain pierced his chest. As she stood to leave, the waitress came back with their food. Marie grabbed her smoothie and walked off with a word of thanks.

Thankfully, the waitress didn't say a word as she gave Stein his food. Stein ate his tuna sandwich with quick angry bites. Downing his water in one gulp, he rose to go see what Marie was up to. If she wanted to walk away like that, he'd let her. She could sulk all she wanted. Still, he couldn't have her messing up his experiments, so he'd watch, from a distance. Deep down, he knew that wasn't the only reason he wanted to watch her.

Stein poked his head around the edge of a nook and saw Marie speaking to the chef, and gesturing towards Death the Kid. The chef frowned, but nodded. She continued walking and Stein followed, stopping by Kid's table. "Though your strategy yesterday was well executed, it depended too much on getting the right angles and force and on an inaccurate number of trees. If you can't plan for unexpected events, you'll probably be killed in the next few months, what with the Kishin's madness wavelength permeating the world," hoping his tactic would work, Stein walked off after Marie.

"Here, I think you'll like it," Marie said to Maka as Stein poked his head around the edge of a nook. She handed her the book Stein had suggested for this moment. "It's well known and may help you out during fights, or just be interesting to read," Marie finished, before waving and walking off.

Maka spoke excitedly to Soul, "The Art of War by Sun Tzu, I've wanted to read it for so long! It's been quoted in lots on my favorite books, so-" Soul yawned.

"Whatever," he cut her off. He saw her annoyed expression and explained, "Look, you're the bookworm, not me. I wouldn't be that uncool,"

"Well then," Maka snapped, opened the book, and started reading.

"Hey! Reading during a conversation is really rude!" Soul somplained.

"Not much of a conversation," she muttered.

"Fine, then just read your silly tomboy books,"

"You won't be complaining when this information saves your life," she didn't look up.

Soul gulped and whispered quietly to himself, "As long as it saves your life too," and Stein grinned.

His grin turned upside down when it became obvious Maka hadn't heard Soul's comment. Their food arrived, and she put her book away. As she ate her salad, Maka eyed Soul's sandwich. The scythe noticed, and offered, "Do you want a bite? It's good," but she blushed and shook her head.

Her eyes stayed firmly on her salad plate, so Stein knew she didn't see the affectionate look or the gentle smile Soul sent her. "You're so stubborn," Soul said, his voice not annoyed, but amused and caring. "Here," he held his sandwich up to her mouth.

Stein could see Maka's eyes widen as she tensed. "I… no, I-I don't want it. Really," she stammered, looking anywhere but him.

His soft chuckle pulled her gaze up. "I'm your partner Maka, I know you better than that," he said, causing her blush to deepen. She nodded, and took a bite of the sandwich.

"Mmm, 's rilly guh," she said around her mouthful. Soul's famous shark-toothed grin made its appearance as he laughed at his meister.

"_Very_ cool, Maka" he teased.

"Oh, shut up," the blonde replied.

Stein smiled and walked around to check on Blackstar and Tsubaki. He took one look at the hyper meister and shook his head. There was little point in putting in the effort to plan anything here. For this particular project, these two would be poor research subjects. Stein saw no point in putting in the effort of trying to get the two together.

"That'll take some work, won't it?" a voice Stein would know anywhere said. So she wanted to act like the argument never happened? Fine by him.

"I don't intend to bother. He's hopeless, Marie." Stein said without turning around.

"You're one to talk," Marie said lightly, then continued before Stein could get angry again, "but I think you're underestimating their connection. I think Blackstar does care for Tsubaki, though his… _outgoing_ personality tends to hide that,"

"Well, I won't pretend to understand love, but as for the rest, there are a few words far less kind than _outgoing_ that I'd use to describe Blackstar, and if you are right, then 'hide' is more like 'eclipse'." Stein commented.

"Either way, Kid and Liz are coming along nicely. Whatever you said to them worked, and he was discussing his worries about the upcoming issues because of the Kishin," Marie reported.

"Hmm. What were you asking the chef something earlier? Anything relevant?" Stein asked.

She grinned, "Quite. I asked him to put just one jalapeño on every sandwich,"

Stein's mind flew, and he intuitively put the pieces together. His own grin grew. "Liz gave him her jalapeno to make his symmetrical, didn't she?"

"She noticed it before he did, and gave it to him right away!" Marie said gleefully.

"It's nice when plans work well, isn't it?" Stein asked, smiling at her.

"Yeah, it is," she replied, her voice sounding slightly distant, as though her mind was somewhere else. Her eyes flicked down his face and she smirked slightly, "Yes, successful plans are quite nice indeed," before turning around, going back to their original table.

Stein wondered what she meant. He could only guess she had made some plans of her own. He hoped they wouldn't interfere with his experiments too much.

After everyone had finished their lunch, they gathered around, and Marie suggested, "How about we go surfing?" she shot Stein a look. So this was her plan. Interesting.

"Why not. Any objections?" Stein asked. There were a few shurgs, so they trooped to a surf shop to rent surfboards. Tsubaki opted not to get one, claiming she didn't know how to surf, and wanted to suntan on the beach anyways. Upon hearing this, Liz and Patty decided to join her. Marie tried to join them, but they insisted she surf too. Stein raised his eyebrows at Marie, and she shrugged grinning. "Probably a good sign," she whispered to him.

On the beach, Blackstar loudly proclaimed his favorite part of surfing was feeling the power of the ocean whenever he fell off his board, because it was something else he would command when he surpassed god. "That makes no sense," Soul muttered as Blackstar sprinted into the waves and tried to stand up on his board.

"Yeah, but convenient, if he's going to fall off that much," Maka replied as Blackstar fell off his board and thrashed around in the water, trying unsuccessfully to regain his footing. The two chuckled, and Soul took a minute on the sand to demonstrate the proper way to stand up on the board to Maka.

"No, you'll want your foot a bit further up on the board," Soul commented and pushed at her foot with his. Stein noted Maka blushed at this, looking over her shoulder at her partner standing behind her.

Then her blush spread when Soul let his eyes roam, looking at her surfing form and said, "You're curving your back too much, straighten it a bit here," he put his hand on her lower back. Before she could give him a Maka-chop, he took his hand off, but Stein noticed both were blushing.

The pair walked into the sea, probably hoping the waves would wash away some of the awkward atmosphere between them. Stein saw Kid performing tricks far out in the cove, where the big waves were. Marie was warming up by riding the waves back to shore and paddling back out.

Stein paddled far out into the cove and experienced_ his_ favorite part of surfing: analyzing the wave patterns and how they affected his maneuvers. His mind calculated quickly what moves would be best for each wave he caught. He noticed Kid was doing well, but he didn't have the experience to know which times he shouldn't do some tricks, and often fell off his board.

"They're discussing boys. You can tell from the way they're pointing, giggling, and blushing," Marie said beside him, nodding towards Liz and Patty and Tsubaki on the beach. Somehow Stein wasn't surprised she'd already caught up to him.

"Then the plans are progressing?" He asked, stretching his arms out for balance the same time she did. Their arms brushed.

"Seems like it. I mean, who wouldn't enjoy the sight of their crush looking really cool by performing all kinds of surfing tricks? All the guys are showing off, too," she commented, a smile in her voice and on her face.

"Guys will be guys," Stein joked, grinning back, not missing that she thought he was showing off. It amused him. Then, at the same time, they shifted, using the wave, their boards and their muscles to go into identical jumping spins off the wave. Their thoughts were connected without resonating, and as they came down on the back of the wave, the huge wave immediately behind the first gave them both the same idea.

They turned their boards almost sideways as the wave began to crest over them. They shot along under the curve of water, in the tube created between the crest and the body of the wave. Marie was right in front of Stein, and he twisted to shoot up the side of the tube, going 360 degrees around to be in front of her. She laughed, and performed the same maneuver. They alternated until they emerged from the now substantially smaller wave at one edge of the cove, close to the beach.

"I hadn't remembered how fun this could be," Stein said, amazed at how happy he was, doing something besides dissecting something.

Marie grinned, "It's like that time when we were their age, and the best of our class went to Oceania to fight a monster on a trip like this one, remember? After the fight, we had a day to relax like this, and you taught me to surf," she said her eyes glossed over, reliving the memory.

Stein was surprised, "I'd totally forgotten," but the memory was slowly resurfacing. Spirit was spending the day with Kami, and the pair had requested Marie keep him from staying in his room the entire day. So she'd begged and wheedled for him to teach her how to surf. Finally, he'd given in, and taught her everything he knew.

"And at the end of the day, you told me 'Despite my hypotheses, that was actually kind of fun, thanks' then you slammed the door of your room in my face," she continued, laughing.

"Mm, well, I had things to do," Stein said, looking over at Soul and Maka. He was teaching her how to surf. She was doing well, perhaps because of the balance she got from her meister training and experience. Marie chuckled and paddled back out. He followed silently, mind still slightly caught up in the past, remembering the feelings he had tried to eliminate by slamming the door all those years ago.

After about another two hours of surfing the group trudged up to the surf shop to return their gear and returned to the hotel. Everyone took showers then met in the lobby. "We're giving you guys some free time now. You can go anywhere in the town as long as you have someone else with you. Our plane leaves early tomorrow, so be back here by ten. I recommend you go to sleep then, but we won't enforce lights out until midnight," Stein told the kids.

"Have fun!" Marie called as Blackstar, Kid, Liz, Patty, and Tsubaki set off to have dinner and shop together. Marie looked out the window and said, "The sunset is really pretty, isn't it?"

Stein saw Soul's eyes widen slightly and knew he'd taken Marie's hint. "Hey, Maka, do you want to go see the sunset? That cliff on the side of the beach would be a really good place to watch the sun set. That is- I mean- only if you… uh," Soul trailed off nervously.

Maka chuckled, "I'd love to, Soul, come on," she said, grabbed his wrist, and ran out of the hotel.

"Follow them?" Marie asked.

"Definitely," Stein confirmed.

They jogged after the couple, and followed at a distance as the scythe pair followed the trail through some cultured woods to the cliff by the beach. They saw Maka's hand timidly slide down Soul's wrist, until they were holding hands. His fingers intertwined with hers, and their blushes deepened.

When they got to the small clearing open to the edge of the cliff, they slowed to a halt. Soul glanced at the sunset, then glanced at his meister. Her eyes had gone wide at the beautiful array of colors spread before her. Her lips were parted in awe, and her eyes glistened with happiness. "It's so beautiful," she whispered.

Stein watched the transfixed boy say gently, "Not as beautiful as you, Maka" her awed gazed turned to the crimson-eyed boy beside her.

"Soul, don't tease me like that," she warned, but her voice gave away her hope.

Soul's voice roughened, "No teasing. I love your long blonde pigtails," he ran his free hand through one pigtail, "I love your emerald eyes," crimson locked on emerald, "I love your personality. I love the way you smile," his fingers trailed down her cheek and his thumb brushed across her lips, "I love the way you fight," he took a deep breath and unclasped their hands, only to put his arm around her waist, "And lately, I've been becoming more and more sure that, more than anything or anyone else, I love you," his eyes dropped to her lips and he tilted his head.

Their lips met, and Maka's arms rose to his neck. When they broke the kiss, Maka said breathlessly, "I love you too, Soul," and their loving gazes met and Soul hugged her tightly.

"I know, and I'm glad," he whispered into his girlfriend's ear.

"Let's watch the sunset from a tree," Maka suggested, pointing to a tree near where Stein and Marie hid.

"Anything," Soul murmured, pulling her over to the tree. Stein looked around quickly, and backed up towards the cliff. He saw a ledge ten feet or so down the cliff as he backed up close to the edge. Marie followed close behind.

He turned to look at Maka and Soul. They were climbing the tree, and quickly reached a thick branch. Soul sat with his back against the tree with Maka in front of him, her back leaning against his chest. His arms enclosed her, and she put her arms over his. Their legs stretched out along the branch, and Soul rested his chin lightly on her head.

"I'm happy for them," Marie whispered to Stein.

"Yeah, the plan's going well," he replied as he made some notes on the clipboard he'd remembered to bring. A quiet growl behind him made him smirk. "Maybe you should have gone to eat instead, though. You didn't have much for lunch, and it sounds like your stomach is protesting," Stein began when a groan made him glance back to her.

He saw Marie with one hand on her stomach, and the other at her head. She was stumbling back, "Marie!" he called, a wave of foreboding hitting him.

"I'm just a little dizzy. I'll be fine in just a second," she said. He saw the tree root as her foot hit it, sending her stumbling back even closer to the edge. He dropped his clipboard and turned to her, as time seemed to slow down. She regained her balance just in time, at the very edge of the cliff.

Before Stein could sigh in relief, her eyes met his then rolled up as she fainted. He ran the few paces towards her as her body collapsed. Gravity took her body and she fell over the edge of the cliff just as he reached out to her. His fingers passed an inch away from her jacket.

Horror shot through him, but was quickly replaced by an angry and desperate sort of determination. All he could think was I'll save her! I have to! His entire body was filled with the need to protect her. Without thinking about it, he flung himself off the cliff after her.

The cliff flew by on his left as he reached out his arms to the unconscious woman falling away from him. He reached desperately for her, and his hands found her arms. He tugged her to him as they fell.

Instinctively, his arms wrapped around her, and clutched her to him as he twisted in the air, so his body was on the bottom. He was the meister. He would protect his weapon. He would take any hit for her. A wave of her scent filled his nose, then their fall stopped abruptly, and a black wave of pain crashed over Stein.

Everything was black and white and red with pain. Everything hurt. Gritting his teeth, he took stock of his injuries and concluded nothing was broken, though he thought his entire body was one big bruise, with a couple of minor cuts.

A groan brought his mind to the woman on top of him, whom he still held. He moved his arm up to stroke her loose hair. His head tilted down and buried his face in her hair. "S-Stein?" she asked, her voice so vulnerable Stein's heart almost broke. His arms tightened around her.

"I don't care what you have to do, but _never_ let that happen again! Never, Marie! Didn't I warn you at lunch? Marie-" Stein began, all his mental filters gone, his voice full of relief and anger.

All that disappeared when she interrupted, "You caught me?" and her voice was so small, so hopeful, so happy, that Stein forgot his rant.

After a pause, his voice came out deeper than usual, "Of course I did. I won't let you get hurt," after a second's thought, he said, "What you said at lunch… you meant I hurt you in the past, didn't you?" no reply came, so he continued, "I'm sorry if I hurt you in the past. I won't let that happen again. As strong as you are, you're still fragile. I'm only beginning to realize that, so bear with me, please,"

"Thank you, Stein, but you can't know you won't hurt me," Marie said, her voice indicating her past pain. She sat up and moved off of him.

He moaned as he sat up. They sat on the ledge he'd seen earlier. She was looking towards the sun set, bouncing colors off the sea. "I suppose I can't be sure, but Marie, when you fell off that cliff, the need to protect you took over everything else. No logic, no sense, no rationality, just the bone-deep _need_ to keep you safe. At that moment, I knew I would do anything for you," he reached out a hand and set it on her shoulder.

"I don't know what this means, or if it will change anything, but I wanted you to know," he finished as he came to sit beside her.

"You can't help but make me hope, can you?" she murmured. With a sigh, she rested her head on his shoulder. Warmth and happiness filled him, and he put is arm around her. They watched the sun set together, on the cliff ledge.

Hope you enjoyed! Thanks to everyone who has reviewed, favorited, alerted, and read Dissection SOS!

*Just to clarify, Marie was dizzy and fainted from hunger and dehydration.

*The memory thing was indicating Stein had been falling for Marie when they were teens, but he successfully ignored/crushed those feelings, which ended up hurting her.

Sorry for taking so long to update, I had major writers block for this chapter. Romance scenes are really hard for me to write because I have no experience to draw from. How was it? Suggestions?

Next chapter they'll go back to Death City and Stein will continue his experiments, but there'll be one big change. Marie.

Please review!


	10. A Scalpel and A Tranquilizer Gun

Dissection SOS

Chapter 10: A Scalpel and A Tranquilizer Gun

The kids were waiting in the lobby, chatting as their curfew came around, Stein saw through the glass automatic door. He surreptitiously checked his watch. 10:30 the digital display read. He scowled, already dreading what he knew was coming.

"Cheer up, Stein," Marie said from behind, "They'll only tease a bit,"

"Maybe," he growled, "but they won't forget it anytime soon, and if it's not direct teasing, it's snickering, and whispering behind their hands," Stein grumbled.

"Let's just get it over with," she said, nudging him towards the door, "I'm hungry," he rolled his eyes. Yes, her hunger, and lack of eating had caused the scene earlier. The things he'd said in the heat of the moment felt like an open wound that refused to close, debilitating and wonderful at the same time. He wanted to hide those feelings, protect his vulnerability, but all he'd said still rang true within him.

"Fine," he grumbled, pulling his hand out of Marie's to hopefully reduce the teasing. No such luck. When they walked in, the seven teenagers turned and all immediately started laughing.

Even Stein's glasses-glare couldn't shut them up. Patty even gasped out between raucous laughs, "My, my, you two really _did_ have fun, didn't you? To be that disheveled…"

"They seemed to have enjoyed the beauty of the nature around here too. I mean, there are perfectly good beds in the hotel, but I suppose a bed of mossy grass would be something someone who loves experiments would try," Liz commented, eyes glinting with mischief.

"Looks like those experiments were pretty intense, too!" Blackstar yelled, blue in the face from laughing.

"I hate teenagers," Stein muttered before trooping off to his room, not deigning to respond to his pupils' antics.

When he woke up the next morning, he groaned. His entire body was covered in bruises, and his attitude felt just as bad. He threw on his usual clothes and packed his suitcase. He couldn't seem to fit it all in perfectly. It just seemed nothing he did felt right. He hated this agitated feeling. He kept packing and repacking until a knock sounded at his door, and Marie entered.

She raised an eyebrow at his foul expression. "Wake up on the wrong side of the bed?" she asked gently.

"I didn't really sleep that much, the bruises kept me awake," Stein said, uncharacteristically eager to complain. She winced.

"Sorry," she whispered. Her eyes found the floor, and she bit her lip. Stein frowned, not understanding. But it only took a second for his brain to supply the logical answer. She must be feeling guilty for the cliff incident.

Stein felt his mood lighten a bit. He didn't want her to feel bad about it, but it made him feel better that she cared enough to feel sorry. Which was, of course, illogical. He sighed. She was becoming a constant source of illogical things for him. He might have to do some research to find out just what was going on and why.

He stood up, "I didn't mean like that. It's just that I feel like crap right now. I dislike the chaos of traveling, and I just can't get my suitcase to pack right," he also felt uncomfortable sharing his feelings like that, but he had remembered to be more delicate with her.

She smiled and walked over to him. "The curse of perfectionism," she joked. Stein just stared flatly at her. He didn't find that particularly funny. She shrugged and looked down at the neat and orderly suitcase. Her mouth twitched as she tried not to laugh. His eyes caught there and held as she spoke, "What's wrong with it?"

"It's just not right! I fit everything in, arranging each item alphabetically!" Stein scowled, annoyed at not being able to figure out was wrong with his packing.

Marie raised an eyebrow, cocked her head, and considered his suitcase. Then she turned her head and looked at his lab coat. He felt her eyes sweep him up and down, and he shifted his weight uncomfortably. A corner of her mouth turned up. Stein's breath left his body.

He gasped when she slid her hand into his empty lab coat pocket. "Thought so," she murmured, and Stein's eyes about popped from his head.

"Marie?" he rasped. She bent down and grabbed a box from the 's' section of the suitcase. she grinned up at him. It did funny things to his empty stomach.

"Tsk, tsk, you're thinking naughty thoughts, aren't you?" She chastised him, seeming more amused than angry, "I think I've found the problem," she opened the box, and took out a scalpel.

She rested it on her leg as she closed and replaced the box. Then she grabbed the scalpel and slid it in his pocket. Oh, that did feel better. He was surprised. His body still hurt, but his mood had improved drastically. He chose not to contemplate what that indicated about his sanity, that he needed a scalpel in his pocket to be tolerable around people.

His mind now at ease, he was free to be amazed that Marie had so easily found and solved the problem. He looked down at her hand as it withdrew from his pocket, and saw a strip of white cloth wrapped around her wrist. It looked almost like a bandage.

Curious, he gently grabbed her wrist and pushed her sleeve up past her elbow. Sure enough, there was a bandage wrapped around her right forearm. The part against the underside of her arm was tinged pink. His throat felt too tight. "What happened," Stein asked, his voice flat as he did his best to block out the worry and anger flooding his system. "Why didn't you tell me about this?"

"I did mention it," she muttered, her eyes avoiding his.

"When?" he demanded.

"The fight with the dragon. You know, the chip in my handle," she said quietly. He remembered now, and kicked himself for not checking up with her about it.

"Let me see." It wasn't a request. Usually, he cared little about bloody wounds. He'd done far worse to thousands of people and creatures, and had healed the like on the DWMA students. All he'd ever really felt about it was the same sort of incessant fascination to know exactly how and why the body worked as it did, and see it for himself. So why was the sight of the bloody bandage whipping up a storm inside him?

He gently unpeeled the bandage from her arm, uncovering a gash the size of a pencil. "How did I not notice this yesterday?" he thought aloud.

"You were busy scheming for the kids. Don't beat yourself up about it. I've had far worse," Marie said, shrugging. He knew now that she could tell how much it was affecting him, and she was trying to brush her injury off, to save him the worry. He wasn't going to just let it drop, though.

"I know you have, but those wounds were never even close to being my fault," Stein said when a thought occurred to him. "You went surfing yesterday. You had your wound in the salt water," he was surprised. He'd done experiments before that involved cuts of his own being dipped in salt water. Obviously, it hurt. But she'd never complained. Of course, he knew she was tough enough to handle it. His respect for her pain tolerance, and the will it took to maintain such tolerance, rose.

Still, he didn't want her to have to need great pain tolerance. She chose her profession, Stein reminded himself. Yet he couldn't entirely quash the protective inclinations he'd felt last night as they resurged.

His hand holding her arm held the cut up to the light. He inspected it. Pus lined the incision. The cut was deep, but diagonal, the flesh torn along her skin, rather than into the muscle in her arm. That was a blessing. That would have been far harder to fix.

Pink, enflamed skin rose in an irritated ridge around the wound, and Stein gently ran a finger down the edge of the inflammation. Marie grimaced and shivered a little and asked him tentatively, "Well?"

Stein's mind was absorbed in the wound, his mind calculating and inspecting. "It doesn't appear to be infected. The salt water seems to have cleaned it well," he continued with a list of instructions as to how she should care for it, to ensure it didn't become infected. She nodded and didn't interrupt, though he knew she'd heard all he told her a million times before.

He bent down to get the supplies he needed, and quickly applied a salve to a bandage. His hand slid down her arm to cup her elbow as he placed the new bandage on her arm. His fingers slid gently over her soft skin as he wrapped the bandage around her arm. He secured it with a piece of medical tape.

Focused on his task, he didn't notice the goose bumps on her arms until he began to pull away, finished tending to the wound. His head tilted. He didn't think it was cold in here. "Do you need a jacket?" he asked her.

It was her turn to look confused. "I don't think covering up the bandage is really necessary, Stein. The airport security is looking for terrorists, not people who have cuts," Marie rolled her eyes.

"That's not what I meant, though you can be as violent as a terrorist when you want to be. I meant the goose bumps on your arm," Stein said, giving in to the irresistible urge to run his fingers over said goose bumps.

Her cheeks pinked at his words, and turned red when his fingers trailed over her arm again. "I'm sure you know all about goose bumps, how they form, and what causes them," she commented drily, slowly slipping her arm out of his hold.

He was mesmerized by the soft skin on her arm. His fingers lingered. When her hand slid out of his, her fingers trailed over his palm, causing him to shiver. Goose bumps ran up his arms. Marie grinned at the irony. She pulled her hand out of his just before his hand clenched to hold hers.

He looked up to meet her gaze. Her eyes sparkled and she was smiling. He felt removed from himself, as the world took on a dream-like quality, a veil between the practical feelings of reality and the irrational storm of emotions this scene had created in him.

"Teasing goes both ways, Stein!" Marie joked, then hugged him quickly. "Thanks for the help,"

Just as Stein had recovered from his surprise at the hug, and moved his arms to put around her, she pulled back and walked out the door, waving her hand over shoulder. "We'll leave in half an hour. See you then. I'll get the kids up, packed, in a car and ready."

The snick of the door shutting brought him back to his senses. He repacked the healthcare items he'd used to bandage Marie's arm. When he finished, he flopped onto his bed and sighed. He _had_ to get his mind refocused on the explainable, scientific experiments he could predict. If he didn't, the confused mess of feelings inside him would make him go mad long before the Kishin's wavelength did.

At the appointed time, Stein checked them all out of the hotel and walked outside with his suitcase. True to her promise, Marie had herded all the kids into the airport van, though the entire car was vibrating with Blackstar's shakes as he tried to contain the massive amount of energy in his body. Stein rolled his eyes and put his trunk in the back, before climbing into the passenger's seat. Marie didn't complain about sitting back with the kids, something he expected from her, but was grateful for nevertheless.

They got to the airport with two hours until their flight left. Everything was going right on schedule. Stein was satisfied his scheduling plans went as well as his experimental plans. Then, they entered the terminal and saw the line for the baggage check. Over two-hundred people stood in the two lines for their airline, Shinigami Air, all student groups who would have to wait for each other to get through, clogging up security too.

"No one has bags they absolutely **have** to check, do they?" Stein asked through gritted teeth.

Liz and Patty glanced at each other and looked to the floor, hands twisting guiltily. Blackstar shouted, "Hell yeah I do! The man who will surpass God will bring what he wants on a trip!"

"Shouldn't that be the opposite? Not cool," Soul muttered, reaching for one of Maka's duffels, but she gave him a glare. Stein shook his head. Soul might be good at the chivalrous stuff, but he had yet to learn when to let Maka be independent, Stein thought.

Stein was right. The student groups took _hours_ to get through the baggage check and security. His DWMA teacher pass didn't give him any advantages here. Only Kid's Shinigami Passport allowed him to jump to the front of the line with Liz and Patty. No one wanted an impatient death god behind them.

The only reason Stein let them go was because Kid promised to make the plane wait. When they were about twenty people from the x-ray machines for the bags, airport attendants came and rushed their group through, claiming the plane needed to leave, but the young Shinigami would not leave without his "posse" to Stein's indignation. Every eyebrow in their group rose in accusation when they walked up to the gate to see Kid standing in the doorway of the airplane.

He grinned, "Hey, can't blame me for having a bit of fun, eh?" The students rolled their eyes and filed into the seats. Stein glared at him, and as he passed, Kid whispered, "Don't be too mad Stein, I also fixed up the seating to be a bit more… favorable to your interests," Stein frowned, but they did need to go, so he boarded without a word.

He slid into an aisle seat towards the back, on the left side of the plane. Marie followed him, and looked from her boarding pass to the numbers underneath the storage compartments. "Yeah, this is my seat," she murmured, swinging her large bag into the overhead compartment and sliding past him before he could stand up to let her in. Their knees banged and his foot accidentally caught hers.

She fell forward, her forehead banging against his, her hand catching her fall on his upper thigh. Her eyes widened, and he could hear her breath catch. Without comment, keeping a carefully emotionless face, Stein put his hands on her shoulders, and pushed her back into upright position, unhooked their feet, and gently pushed her to her seat. He could feel a small blush of his own matching the one gracing her cheeks.

She sat down in the seat beside him and opened the window. She rubbed her forehead, scowling. Then she sighed and took out a magazine to read. Stein read over her shoulder for all of one paragraph. If he read anymore, he would lose valuable brain cells. He pulled out a thick anatomy reference book, and settled into reading something far more interesting than what the latest dress fashions were. It was going to be a long flight.

They got through the flight and to the baggage check just fine. Everyone grabbed their bags, and Stein was on his way out the door when Blackstar yelled, "One of my bags is missing!" They all turned to look at the pile of suitcases surrounding Blackstar.

"Geez, you pack more than four girls combined…" Liz remarked.

"He has _seven_ suitcases," Kid said, disgusted, "Let's go, Liz, Patty." He walked out with them and across the lot to the Shinigami-patterned car waiting for them.

Blackstar screamed after him, "The one I'm missing is the eigth, idiot! Besides, the man who will surpass God cannot travel without his entire collection of- MMPH!" Tsubaki's hand over his mouth completely covered whatever he'd been about to say.

Maka's eyebrows rose and Soul rolled his eyes. Marie looked curious, and Stein just wanted to report to Lord Death and get back to his house. Tsubaki improvised, "His entire collection of, uh, of books," the delicate way she referred to the reading materials told everyone present they were likely far shorter, almost entirely pictures, and the particular type of "reading" material typical for teenage boys and not suitable for public discussion. Stein snorted.

"You can do without those, Blackstar," Stein said.

"But it might take weeks, months, or even _years_ to get my suitcase back!" the hormonal assassin protested.

"Shinigami forbid you not have your precious _books_. Whatever will you do?" Stein's sarcasm overcoming his failing patience.

Marie's mouth twitched. Her shoulders shook with suppressed laughter. Her eyes looked from Blackstar to Tsubaki and back again. "I'm sure he'll be able to find _something_ to do," Marie whispered to Stein. He smirked and spun the screw in his head.

His patience level slightly restored with the joke, Stein let Maka and Soul to go out to his motorcycle to drive back home. "They may still be getting luggage off the plane. It was a very large plane," Tsubaki reassured Blackstar, finally letting him go.

His eyes sparked, "I thought of that!" he shouted and sprinted off towards the gate. _Sure_ you did, Stein thought. It seemed traveling really brought out his sarcastic streak. Then he sensed the subtle pulse of the Kishin's madness wavelength, and wondered if that was what was causing his unusual behavior.

Tsubaki winced, "Sorry Professor Stein, I'll go get him," Stein groaned. The Kishin's madness wavelength was so much stronger here, and he wasn't in the mood to put up with these antics.

So he allowed himself an evil smirk. He angled his face so the light bounced off his glasses menacingly. "No need, Tsubaki," he said smoothly, his voice disturbingly pleasant. Marie shot him a look, sensing something was off. "There's a souvenir I bought that I'm dying to try out," and his evil grin began to show teeth as he whipped his hand out of his lab coat clutching a gun.

Jaws dropped everywhere. Anyone who hadn't been paying attention now was. The only sounds were the chugging and clunking of the conveyor belts full of bags. "Y-you snuck that through security?" Marie choked out.

He chose to take that as a rhetorical question, and took aim at the boy turning the far corner, the length of two football fields away. He predicted the path the boy would take through the dense crowd, and shot. Marie jumped in front of him, arms outstretched, and the bullet hit her in the shoulder. Her eyes immediately rolled up, into her head.

Stein's anger, at both himself and the woman collapsing in front of him, was suppressed by the concentration of his next shot. Of course, it hit true, and though the boy was little but a dot in Stein's vision, he saw him fall.

"Professor Stein!" Tsubaki yelled, the normally timid and polite girl's face had twisted with the fury that raised her voice. "What the Shinigami do you think you're doing?!"

"Calm down, Tsubaki. It was merely a long-range tranquilizer dart. I figured something like this might happen, so I ensured it was on my person should I need it. Go get your partner and go on home. Don't be late for my class tomorrow. Jet lag is no excuse," Stein said, his expression fading into its usual serious emotionlessness.

Despite the multitude of protests, Stein tied his and Marie's suitcases together and picked her up. It wasn't until he'd laid her in the passenger seat of his car and secured their luggage that he began to really realize what he'd done. He shook his head. That wavelength was affecting him far more than he'd predicted. Or maybe it was just the shock of going from an area with virtually none, to one with so much. Yes, that must be it. There was no other way his predictions could be so over-optimistic. Right?

Without delay, he drove to his house and unpacked his luggage with the quick ease of long practice. Then, he grabbed the still unconscious Marie and laid her on the bed in his guest bedroom. He wasn't surprised she was still out. He'd specialized those tranquilizer doses to knock out the fit, ever-hyper teenage Blackstar from a long distance, not Marie at close range. She'd be out for a while, and then give him hell for it when she woke.

He didn't particularly want to be here for that, though he was interested in what her reaction would be. So he installed a discreet camera and set it to record and transmit. He wasn't a pervert, just a scientist. He'd turn the camera off once he'd observed her reactions. However, for now, he had to go report to Shinigami-sama.

"Hello, hello, Stein!" said the jovial Shinigami, bouncing over to the travel-worn professor. He held out his hand, but Stein ignored it. Shrugging it off, Lord Death asked, "How did the mission go Stein? And the experiment?" Of course, Lord Death only knew about the big experiment, not the specific sub-experiments involving the kids' romantic lives.

"The experiments proceeded as well as could be expected, given the number of uncontrollable variables, and as for the mission, there were a few unexpected complications…" he remembered the triple pre-kishin and the fights they'd all had. Like his experiments, they all made up part of a bigger whole. Something indistinguishable clicked in the back of his mind. Something about that seemed important, but it wasn't quite surfacing. He stored the thought away for later.

"Everything ended up perfectly fine, however. I'll write up the formal reports and have them to you by the end of the week," Stein said briskly.

The shinigami nodded. "What about Marie? You met up with her, right?" Stein nodded silently, keeping his face blank, though a weird nervous sort of warmth swirled in his stomach.

"Where is she staying? There was a slight, ah, _mishap_ shall we say, and she's unconscious, so I put her in my guest room," Stein didn't need to see the Shinigami's face to know his eyebrows rose.

"When we're finished here, I'll go take her wherever she needs to be," Stein said, his intonation requesting information.

Stein swore the Shinigami smiled mischievously behind his mask as he said happily, "No need, she'll be staying in your house!"

Stony silence met these words as shock shot electricity into Stein's body. He blinked. "What?" he asked, his voice the type of careful calm that boded ill for any who provided an unwelcome answer.

"You're friends, Stein, and she's stayed with you before when she was visiting," Shinigami-sama said lightly.

"When she was _visiting_," Stein emphasized. Besides, he thought, all those times, they hadn't just been on a trip that had made things… different.

His voice hardening slightly, Shinigami-sama said, "She's your partner, Stein," and Stein knew this was one argument he wouldn't win. Marie had been helpful in the fight on the trip, and it was customary for a weapon-meister pair to live together. Even the younger students followed the practice. He sighed, and accepted it. He bid the Shinigami farewell, and went home to see if his new roommate had woke up yet.

**EVERYONE: Would you prefer shorter chapters and more updates, or chapters about this length, and infrequent updates? If I can figure out how, I'll set up a poll. For now, please either PM me, or put your opinion in your review. Enjoy.**

**Thank you for reading this story so far, through the long breaks between updates! I apologize. Really, I do. My Calculus 2 class sucks up time like a black hole. I won't have much free time this semester between that, and the switch to soccer season (longer practices and games). **

** It's been a while since I did these, so I figured I'd better catch up (if I forgot someone's I'm very sorry: it's entirely unintentional:**

**TwilightPrncss: Thank you SO much, your review literally had me jumping up and down in happiness, grinning so hard it hurt!**

**SortaPsychotic: Thanks! It's my goal for my readers to enjoy and anticipate my stories! It's incredibly gratifying to hear it!**

**Lialane Graest: Yeah, it took some research, but I want to make the stories as realistic to the anime/manga as the plotline will allow. How fast do you think I should create their romance? I won't write anything beyond kissing, so I was thinking slow… but what're your thoughts?**

**Ian: Stein will get crazier: I promise. **


	11. Guilty Memories

Dissection SOS Chapter 11

Guilty Memories

Stein tiptoed through the front door. He listened for anything out of place. Nothing. Whew. Marie must not be awake yet. He walked to the kitchen and put some water into a mug and heated it in the microwave. Some coffee would ease her mood when she _did _get up.

He pulled out the box of the coffee Marie had gotten him for his birthday. It was the kind only made in Oceania, so it'd be like a little piece of home for her. He was about to dump some into the cup, when he remembered he'd made _alterations_ to this particular bag of coffee, to trick Spirit into drinking something that would knock him out besides alcohol.

Stein exited his kitchen, walking down the hall to get the small tub of hot chocolate powder from his pantry, where it was kept for emergencies in the form of frantic students otherwise undeterred. Well, stressed out students, _and_ Spirit, every time his latest woman dumped him. _So _annoying.

He was pulling the tub out of the pantry when a shoe squeaked on the tile floor of the hallway. He dropped it and spun too late. A blinding pain spread like fire across the back of his skull, and he heard a victorious "Hah! Guess you were right, revenge really is a dish best served cold! Since you… tranquilizer…wake up on the bed… left me to go…" his hearing faded in and out with his consciousness.

Before he was completely out, he managed to mutter, "Damn it, Marie!"

A laugh accompanied the reply, "…worry, … least… experiment… you, Stein!"

**Memory/Dream/Flashback**

After an indeterminate amount of time, the blackness slowly cleared, shredding apart into gray fog. The last word he'd heard echoed through his mind, "Stein," the beautiful woman's melodic voice called out to him, again and again. Stein found himself floating above a cold, cobblestone street he hadn't seen in years. But he remembered it. Back then, he'd found her here. She had called out to him, like just then, but not in laughter.

As if called by the memory, the young blonde girl, a teenager on the brink of adulthood came running around the corner. Her two gold-colored eyes glanced around until she spotted what she sought. She sprinted with practiced agility over the rough stones and threw herself into an alley that ended in an enclosed square. She pressed her back against the near wall of the square, where she couldn't be seen from the alley entrance.

She waited there silently for about five minutes, holding perfectly still. Stein felt the stirring of often-repressed memories, as he watched a boy approach the entrance to the alley at a slow jog. His eyes were shut in concentration. His gray-tinted blonde hair blew in a gentle breath of wind. No glasses yet graced his face, and his trademark screw was conspicuously absent. Above, Stein felt sick to his stomach as he watched the teenager turn into the alley.

Hearing the footsteps, the girl grinned maliciously and the arm furthest from the entrance transformed beyond her elbow into a heavy stone hammerhead, graced with a lightning bolt. Her other hand gripped a stone that stuck out from the wall slightly. The boy's long arms snaked around the corner towards her.

Using the leverage of the stone she held on to, she swung her hammer-arm towards the face appearing around the corner. The stone slid back slightly, and she grunted with the effort to compensate her swing. The boy grinned and ducked under her arm, grasping both of her upper arms and tugging. The force caused her to twist, ending with her arms bent behind her back far enough to just begin to hurt.

She cursed. Another tug pulled her back into the chest of the boy who'd defeated her without even opening his eyes. He bent down and whispered, his mouth next to her ear, "I believe I found you in record time, did I not, Marie?" a smile grew on the boy's face.

In the air, Stein watched the stone Marie had pushed sink into the wall, leaving a dark black hole, from which thick, black fog slid into the dusk. He clenched his jaw knowing now the significance of what the two happy friends did not notice. They continued bantering as Stein watched the black fog creep slowly around them and sweep down the alley, bunching up around the end, where the winding street met the alley.

The girl scowled and grumbled, "I agreed to help you out with this because I thought you could barely see Souls, much less know I was planning on ambushing you!"

The boy let out a low chuckle. "Barely? That's harsh. Besides, Marie, your Soul is too… exuberant for me _not_ to know you had something planed. Knowing you, I figured it would be some kind of attack,"

Marie rolled her eyes. The younger Stein released her and opened his eyes. "Thanks for helping me practice my Soul Perception, though."

"Yeah, yeah. I don't know why you didn't just ask Spirit though," she said, turning to face him.

He raised an eyebrow, "And chase him around the city every time he got distracted by a passing female?"

"You're exaggerating," she replied, grinning.

"No, really! It actually happened! One time, we were on a mission in France, and a man let his daughter, who couldn't have been more than three years old, play in one of those tube-style play houses you find at some big fast food restaurants, and Spirit ran after the child."

Marie laughed, "How old were you guys?"

"Eleven." Young Stein said, shaking his head, "So, of course, he got stuck in the tubes."

"How'd you get him out?" Marie asked.

"I slid his food down one of the slides where he could reach it. I was going to leave him and finish the mission myself while he ate, but there was so much grease on his burger, and he was so messy with eating it, that he managed to grease the sides of the tube up enough to squeeze out. I didn't leave fast enough, and he managed to catch up to me. I almost threw up my own dinner at the sight of him,"

"Eewww," she replied. She shook her head, "He's always getting himself into something or other, isn't he? I don't know what Kami sees in him,"

"He'll break her heart someday if she's not careful," Young Stein joked.

"Nah, she'll keep a tight rein on him. He certainly seems infatuated!" Marie laughed.

She started to walk out of the alley, and he followed. "Should I go hide somewhere else in Death City?"

"Uh, no, I think I'm good for today as far as exercising my Soul Perception goes. It took a lot of concentration to make my way through the maze of alleyways you decided to hide in,"

"Oh stop complaining. You asked for a challenge…" she brushed off his complaint with a wave of her hand.

He sighed and ran a friendly hand through her hair, ruffling it. "I underestimated your ability to challenge me," he admitted.

"Hey now! Just because I'm not 'the DWMA's best meister' doesn't mean I'm way below your level!" she protested.

"Of course you're not. That's not what I was-" Stein cut off abruptly and stopped walking as his head turned from her face to the entrance of the alley. She paused and looked up at him, only to see his face frozen in shocked horror, eyes looking past her. She whipped around as a razor sharp tentacle sliced through the fog.

From above, Stein felt a wave of cold self-hatred shoot through him. He tried to move, to stop what he knew what was going to happen from occurring. But all he could do was watch. He couldn't do anything but breathe and blink. He couldn't even bring himself to close his eyes. He owed her that much, at least.

His younger counterpart jumped forward, pulling Marie down as the creature's limb sliced towards her throat. The tentacle aimed for Marie's neck missed. Stein had a millisecond of relief, before the tentacle continued on its path, where in her fall, one of her eyes was.

"Stein!" she screamed, too late. The spray of blood was accompanied by a squelch as the tentacle withdrew from the blonde girl's eye socket covered in red-coated white bits of eye. Stein retched as the shock and pain registered on his friend's face. Her scream cut off abruptly as she fell unconscious before she hit the ground.

Stein watched his younger face contort in disbelief, horror, and rage. He remembered the rush of emotion; more powerful than anything he'd felt before. Instead of watching his younger self, he watched the broken girl who lay unconscious on cold cobblestones, a pool of red spreading around her head.

The conscious teenager launched himself at the fog, sprinting. Anger fueled his muscles, and a furious scream that rent the air burst from his lungs. His eyes were wild as he dove into the fog.

Above, Stein could no longer stand to watch Marie. He used a combination of Soul Perception and memory to see what the black fog obscured. His Soul had gone wild, its wavelength shifting rapidly, too unstable for its body. Energy from his Soul's rapid changes raced across his body as he ran. The fog shrank from the boy, and he entered the center of the ball of fog to see a woman whose arms had transformed into eight writhing tentacles, four per arm.

She grinned, showing empty gums and chanted, "Octopus Suction Stomach!" the blonde boy watched her exposed belly button grow into a huge, gaping suction-cup style mouth with razor-sharp teeth, fascinated in spite of his anger. He knew how octopi ate. They pushed their stomachs out to enclose their prey before bringing the food back inside their bodies.

"You're a witch. An octopus witch," the younger Stein said, disgusted with himself. Lord Death had told him that morning that by practicing Soul Perception he could detect pre-kishins, and would soon probably be able to detect witches. If only he'd worked harder before now, he might have been able to keep Marie from getting hurt.

The trembling boy's fists clinched. "You hurt my friend," his eyes shown with raw emotion, the strength of which he'd never known before.

The witch laughed. "Any witch worth her salt knows to take out the weapon first! Meister's can't do much of anything on their own!" the following cackle brought the boy's already tempestuous feelings to a head.

"I don't care! You hurt Marie. Now you'll pay." He used the feeling building up inside him, the one causing his Soul enough discord to race along his arms, and concentrated. He channeled it into he hands, and for the first time, he truly _felt_ his wavelength. He wan't just trying to adjust it to resonate anymore. Now, he could feel every little pulse, every blip in the pattern as his emotions shifted and strengthened.

He focused on the waves pouring through him, and widened them. He felt them spread out around him, crackling in the air like electricity. His Soul took shape around him, growing rapidly. The witch took a step back in surprise, her eyes widening. Stein didn't care. His eyes were shut, focusing inside himself. He didn't even see the tentacles shoot out at him, or the octopus stomach try to envelope him whole. Everything bounced of the shield his Soul wavelength created.

He could sense the short, rapid wavelengths of the witch's soul, and he instinctively lengthened his own. The screams told him the contrast was jarring to his opponent. He didn't feel the ruction. A vicious sense of justice swept through him. Every time his control wavered, he thought of Marie. The look in her eye when she got stabbed. Her grin as they bickered. A mirage of her smiles, given to his over the many years he had been her friend.

The memory of her smiles, her laughing eyes, her fighting style, the way she had grown up from a scrawny little kid to a beautiful teenager. He bolstered his resolve with everything and anything _her._ He felt the tears roll down his cheeks as he began to realize just how much she'd lost, by loosing her eye. How much he'd caused her to loose. How much this witch had taken away from her. If she was even still alive.

His Soul wavelength shifted into jagged spikes, and he sprinted forward through the shield he'd unconsciously created and dodged the suction cups flailing towards him, and jumped for the witch's neck. A tentacle hit him from the side with crushing force, throwing him off. Determined, he reached out and just managed somehow catch the side of the witch's face.

He thrust his wavelength through his hand into the witch's body. The jagged wavelength tore through the muscles and bones of one side of her face. The witch's scream sounded like nails on a chalkboard. Before he could do enough damage to kill her, every tentacle grabbed him and she used every ounce of force she could muster to smash him against the stone wall of the alley.

Stein watched his younger head crash against the stone. Even though the boy went limp, his disturbed wavelength still wrapped itself around the outside of his body. The witch noticed the spikes of wavelength and spat on him before giving up on him. She moved down the alley towards Marie's unconscious form.

"Marie! Stein! Ugh, Spirit, where are they?" A high-pitched, worried female voice called out. The witch turned her head at the voice. She dissolved into the thick black fog that rose like a cloud and fled into the night.

"Damn it all! What happened to them?" said a young teenager, voice rough with worry. "His wavelength has been going crazy the last few minutes! What the hell did my partner get himself into without his weapon?"

"I heard Marie was with him," the girl replied. Stein watched two out-of-breath teenagers run around the corner.

"Then what went wrong? He's skilled enough to work with most weapons. I'm sure he could fight with her! Kami, maybe-"

"There!" The girl pointed towards the alley.

Stein had trouble breathing. His chest hurt. He'd never known Spirit and Kami had found him. He'd never known Spirit had felt his Soul hurting, through their weapon-meister bond, much less that he and Kami had searched for him. He should have given Spirit more credit as a weapon. But he'd never asked. And Spirit had never told him.

Stein felt an unexpected surge of gratefulness and respect for Kami and his old partner and, yes, friend. He saw Spirit brave his jagged wavelength and hoist him up onto his back. He watched his old weapon grit his teeth and carry him back to the DWMA, beside Kami, who carried Marie as she cried for her. As he watched them help their unconscious friends, he realized Spirit and Kami must have understood what he'd felt after the incident.

Thinking of that, when he next blinked, he found himself standing next to a bed he recognized, one in which he'd stitched up many students, in the infirmary at the DWMA. Now, in the bed nearest the window his younger self lay, bandages around his ribs and the top of his head. On the bed beside his lay the blonde girl with bandages wrapped around her head, covering one eye.

The younger Stein stirred and tried to raise himself from the bed. "Marie!" he cried out, reaching an arm up. He gasped and put a hand to the bandages holding his broken ribs. He shook his head as if to clear his thoughts and looked around. He saw Marie lying asleep on the bed beside his. His expression didn't show relief until he saw her chest rise and fall with breath.

"She's alive, she's alive. She didn't get killed. I didn't kill her," he whispered to himself, tears of relief pricking in his eyes and joy spreading through his veins. But the soft smile on his face quickly grew hard. He sneered, "But I almost did. I have no right to be her friend. Marie, I'm so sorry,"

She stirred, and groaned. His expression grew tortured. "I hurt you,"

A groggy voice mumbled, "It wasn't you. That was a witch, wasn't it? Are you hurt, Stein?"

His eyes grew wide as he realized she'd heard him. He gulped hard and turned his face away to the window. His expression remained a mask of self-loathing. "Yeah, it was a witch. And it might as well have been me. It's my fault."

"It's ok, Stein. I'll live. It-It's just an eye," Marie almost made it without her voice breaking. His jaw clenched and his fists gripped the bed sheets. The sun shone through the window, a ray landing on her bandaged face. "How badly are you hurt?" she repeated.

When he didn't answer her, she turned her head, moaning at the effort. At her soft "oh no," he spun to face her, afraid something else had happened to her. She exclaimed, "You're chest! Did you break some ribs? Puncture a lung? Pierce your heart?"

"Just a few broken ribs," he sighed, "You'd hear it if I'd punctured a lung, and nothing can pierce my heart," but the older Stein began to wonder about that statement, seeing the distraught look on the boy's face as he looked at the girl beside him.

He stopped that thought before it could really form. He'd noticed no affection beyond friendship when he'd lived through this incident, and now he was just imagining things because he was seeing it from another point of view.

His younger self continued, "But, I'm really glad you're alive. If you weren't here I…" he swallowed hard, blinking rapidly, and Marie smiled.

She relieved him of the necessity of finishing the sentence by saying gently but with emotion, "I won't leave you alone in this world, Stein. Not until we've lived our lives fully, and are old and ready to leave this world. You'll still be here, won't you, Stein?"

"Yeah" he said gruffly. He turned back to the window. Marie fell asleep with a smile. Stein didn't notice and continued after a long pause, "But neither of us can really promise that. Not as long as we work with Shibusen," He glanced over to see her face slack with sleep. A small smile spread across his lips as he shook his head, and lay back down.

Stein blinked and time sped forward again. A doctor in a white uniform was drawing the curtains beside him over the now-dark window. Stein's younger self groaned and woke up. He looked blearily at the doctor. The slow recognition gave the doctor time to tidy up the rest of the ward for the night.

"What are our injuries? What won't heal?" Stein asked, his voice clear and hard, the last vestiges of sleep thrown off. The doctor halted by the door and sighed.

"Stein, when you're healed and mentally recovered-"

"No. I'm ready to hear it now. If you don't tell me, I'll rip my bandages off and use a scalpel to see for myself!"

"Now, now, there's no need for that," the doctor chastened. He sighed and considered the young blonde's request.

Stein swung his legs over the side of the bed and stumbled his way towards the drawer on the opposite wall he knew contained scalpels. His stiff muscles hampered his progress, and the doctor frowned, intercepting the boy.

"Fine, I'll tell you. Just get back in bed before you hurt yourself," the doctor hurried to assure.

Stein climbed back into the heavily sanitized cot and stared expectantly at the white-coated figure in front of him. "You have a broken rib, a few bruised ribs, all of which should heal up, along with a number of other cuts and bruises. Your major injury, however, is to your skull. Your skull is cracked above and a bit behind your ears, on both sides. It's the oddest thing, really. Somehow your brain seems unharmed, and there don't appear to be any sharp bone shards, or they would've already sliced through your brain.

Stein absorbed the information slowly. "So what's keeping my brains inside my head, if my skull isn't keeping it from dripping down my face?"

The doctor flinched at his patient's vivid gory depiction. "Your skin held it until you got here. As soon as I figured out what was wrong, I removed the bone shards and placed two circular metal plates there. Those bandages hold them on. When your body is further healed, I'll embed them in your remaining skull, with your permission. I'd rather not do something that serious without permission, since they'll show as two metal circles in your head for the rest of your life,"

Stein absorbed this information silently, and put it aside for later consideration. "And Marie?"

"Only her eye was injured, but…"

"It won't ever function again, will it? I saw _pieces_ of her eye flying. I know she's lost that eye. But how bad is it? Did the tentacle go through to her brain?"

The doctor failed to suppress his horror and sympathy for what the teenagers had gone through. He answered with a simple, tight-lipped, "No."

Stein sank back onto his pillows, turning his head to look at the girl asleep in the next bed. "Thank goodness," he breathed. "Then she'll be okay," The relief was enough for him to feel the wave of fatigue he'd held at bay.

He began to fall back asleep, as the doctor muttered, "Oh, she'll live. Whether she'll be okay remains to be seen…" That sentence had haunted Stein's dreams as his subconscious realized what the doctor had meant. Marie's life would never be the same, not with only one eye. And it was his fault. All his fault.

Stein closed his eyes as he watched his counterpart writhe in mental agony on the bed. The same tearing guilt cut through him. Brief scenes flashed before his eyes, memories he didn't want to remember.

A week after he'd entered the infirmary, he'd been released. During that time, he'd designed and created the scored metal tube he'd embedded through his skull. Then, he created a simple prototype of his present screw, notched it so it locked into the tube and could rotate, sending vibrations through his brain, but not actually harming it. He remembered walking in on her the first day after he'd put it in.

Marie's eye had grown wide, her other a mass of inflamed red scar tissue. A hand went to her mouth as she gasped. "Stein! Y-your head!" She looked so worried for him, as she thought he'd hate how he now looked. He'd clenched his jaw and shook his head. His eyes never left hers.

He had explained, "I chose this. There were holes in my skull anyways, and I thought this was both a useful and appropriate way to make use of that. It will serve as a reminder of how badly I 'screwed up' so that I never forgive myself for what happened to you, Marie," he looked her hard in the eye, challenging her to argue with his decision.

Tears welled up and spilled down her cheek. "Stein, you don't have to do that for me. I don't blame you, and I'll talk to everyone else, no one will blame you!"

His eyes flashed with unbidden emotion. "But _I_ blame myself," Stein said, turning away from her, moving to open the door.

"Then I forgive you. You're blaming yourself because of me, right? So my forgiveness should solve that," she stated.

"It's not that simple, Marie. It'll be hard for you. All the pain you'll go through, is ultimately because of me. Also, this screw serves to remind me how careful I must be, with myself and others, and how much harder I need to work to achieve the point where I can protect my friends from getting hurt. I don't care what people say."

Marie sighed, and continued to cry. She whispered, "What do you want me to do, Stein? It'll also hurt me if you hurt yourself like this,"

Stein's hand clenched on the doorknob. His whole body shook with the effort not to cry. He turned back to her, his face hard, his eyes meeting her sole eye with the ferocity of his pain. His voice was rough with hurt, "Don't cry. I'll fix this. Somehow, someday, I'll make you a new eye. I make it so that you can see again. So don't cry,"

"I'm not crying for my lost eye, Stein." She said, her sad tone evoking a strong response in the already overwhelmed boy's body.

At his confused and hopeless expression, she gave a watery chuckle. "I'm crying for _you_, Stein. Thank you. You've always been a great friend. You should know you don't need to remind yourself like that. The screw is your choice, but although you hide it, you have a protective and kind streak a mile wide." She was still smiling.

He couldn't take the guilt of seeing her like that. The pressure was crushing him. He opened the door and sprinted down the hall. He didn't stop running, out of Shibusen, into the adjacent woods, until he had reached the very heart of the forest. The wave of hurt and guilt threatened to crush him. Her forgiveness, her unending kindness only served to increase the pain.

She voice haunted him. "Stein," she'd cried as she'd fallen. "Stein" she'd said as she consoled him. Harsh sobs shook his frame. He dropped to his knees and brought his hands to his wet face. She'd told him, "I don't blame you. I forgive you!" The pain had been too much.

He'd thrust his Soul wavelength out from his body. He used the power of his emotional turmoil to expand his Soul. He was able to see the whole forest through his Soul Perception, down to every last aphid. He couldn't help the interest that sparked in him at this, so he'd shoved down his feelings, shoving them in a small crystal vial inside his heart, never to be opened again.

Remembering the unthinking promise he made her, he resolved to keep it, and use this new ability constructively. There was a bird nearby, and he sent his Soul wavelength up, through the tree, instantly paralyzing the small starling. It fell into his hands along with a sharp piece of bark, and so his study of optics began bloodily.

However, it wasn't long before Lord Death and Spirit had put a stop to his teenage dissections, and over time he'd forgotten his promise. How could he have forgotten something so crucial, so obvious? Guilt swept over him again, as other memories haunted him.

Marie, crying on her hospital bed, unaware he was watching her from the doorway. Her, trying to learn how to fight hand-to-hand and with her meister again with only one eye. Him teaching her how to punch hard with her lack of the depth perception only obtained with two eyes. He remembered the weeks before she could fully transform again, and how even then, her accuracy was off, and her wavelength unstable. Her meister almost went insane, causing more pain and grief to the blonde girl. Stein drew gasping breaths as the memories continued.

He felt like he was drowning. He wanted the pain to end, no matter what. He squeezed his eyes together with all his strength and tried to shut out the memories. Slowly he became aware of solid ground beneath him. He opened his eyes, afraid of what he would see next.

**Present/Awake:**

He saw the open door of his pantry and the box of hot chocolate powder on the ground. His head throbbed and he braced a hand on the floor and raised himself into a sitting position. He put a hand to the back of his head. A lump graced his skull and contributed to its unbearable throbbing.

He groaned. He remembered now: someone had knocked him out when he'd gone to the pantry. He picked up the box with one hand and reflexively wiped his cheek with his other. He was surprised when his hand came away wet. He'd been crying in his sleep. Disturbed, Stein walked into the kitchen deep in thought.

However, the moment he processed the scene in the kitchen, his mind froze. Marie lay spread-eagled on the floor of the kitchen, eyes closed but breathing, a smashed mug of brown liquid by her right hand. His eyes flicked to the open packet of coffee on the counter.

Oh. That's right.She was pissed at him, and had hit him over the head. The suspicious evidence of a heavy pan lay on the counter by the coffee. Really, the scenario was too amusing for him to be angry. That's what she got for knocking him out. She should know better than to eat just anything in his kitchen.

He was about to laugh when he looked back at her, but the sight of her peaceful, sleeping face sent a wave of something powerful through him. He felt fierce protective of her in that moment. He noticed her eye patch had slipped a little when she fell, and he bent to replace it. Curiosity got the better of him though, and he moved it the other way a bit, to see the remains of her eye. The eyelid was limp, the muscles suffering atrophy from lack of use. However, the eyelid itself didn't seem particularly harmed in any way.

He stared at her sleeping face, scarred eye and all. Her sleeping face was so peaceful, so oblivious to her disfiguration that it made her all the more beautiful. She looked so innocent, so blissful. He cupped her cheek in his hand and held it there as a wave of guilt swept through him.

It didn't matter that she had learned to deal with only having one eye. She shouldn't have had to. He swallowed hard, barely keeping his tears in check. How she could elicit such emotion out of him, this many years later, he had no idea. The only way to solve the problem, he figured, was to fulfill his promise. He would make Marie a new eye.

He scooped her up into his arms, and carried her into his main lab. He laid her gently on the lab table and retrieved a blanket from his linen closet to keep her warm. He got some instruments out, and began taking measurements.

Though she didn't stir, every time his hand brushed her face, she seemed to lean into the contact, causing Stein to want to be closer, only to push himself away. He had no right. He'd forgotten such a crucial promise. He'd taken for granted her appearance, used to it by now, after years of seeing her with only one eye.

Once he'd gotten all the measurements he could think of needing for her eye socket, he carefully secured her eyelid in the open position and turned down the lights in the lab, in case her optical nerves still had some sensitivity. He bent closer to her, and carefully inspected the inside of her eye.

A wave of nausea swept though him. He never felt like this with regular dissections, though this was similar. Visions, memories, of Marie's laughing eyes swam before him. The spark had never left her eye through all the hardships she'd experienced. A mix of grief and determination and something he couldn't name swept through him. He turned back to her unconscious form on the lab table and couldn't help but smile gently, albeit regretfully, at her. "I'll make it right," he whispered, knowing she couldn't hear him.

He examined her optical nerves, and took pictures, but he didn't know enough about optics to know for sure how extensive the damage was. Well, there was an easy way to solve that. There _were _benefits to being a teacher, after all.

Stien put away his lab equipment. For amusement's sake, he carried Marie to a different guest bedroom, just to see how well she remembered his house. Then, he began his lesson plan for tomorrow, an evil glint shining off his glasses.

The next morning, Stein was in the kitchen, cooking omelets and frying bacon to mollify the sure-to-be-angry Marie, when she shuffled into the kitchen. "Morning, Stein," she said cheerfully, albeit groggily. He turned to look at her and fondness swept through him.

She'd changed into her standard uniform, a lightning bolt-patterned dress, but she'd yet to do her hair, which was a tangled mess down her back. Her eye patch was in place, and her other eye drooped with sleepiness.

Marie yawned and stretched. "It's too early to be up. I could really use some caffine? Got any coffee?" The question was barely out of her mouth when she stopped, seeming suddenly notice the blank space in her memory after drinking the coffee yesterday.

She looked at him suspiciously. "What did you do to the coffee I sent you?"

Stein hid his smirk and put on his best innocent expression, and replied, "The coffee you sent is great, it really is. Spirit loves it. Drinks it most times he comes over, actually,"

Marie still looked suspicious, and inquired, "Meaning?"

Because he didn't think he could stand a repeat of last night, Stein continued, "But… it might be in your best interests not to drink that coffee. There's a tub of hot chocolate powder in the pantry, or some teabags in that cabinet,"

She walked to the cabinet he indicated and pulled out a red goji raspberry green tea bag. "No Earl Grey? Pity," and Stein made a face at her mention of that hated beverage.

"Want some of this?" she offered. He shook his head, and served up their food. She thanked him, ate then went to go get ready. He meant to wait for her, but then he remembered their students' insinuations on the trip. Plus, he couldn't have her seeing his lesson plans. She wasn't dumb. He taped a note to the door, and then left at a brisk pace for the DWMA, his lab coat flapping around his calves.

"_Eyeballs_?" Blackstar yelled. "We're going to be studying _eyeballs_? Oh, I get it! It's to make it easier for you guys to see the most perfect person ever: ME!"

Stein rolled his eyes. "Blackstar, if you don't get off the table and sit down in your chair, I'll use _you_ as the subject for the demonstration. For your information, the demonstration involves the removal of the subject's eyes, then the examination of the optical nerves, and the way the nerves interpret light waves as electronic signals, which are sent to the brain. I was planning on using an animal, so using you wouldn't change the plans at all,"

Predictably, the class oohed at the insult, but Blackstar laughed. "I don't expect insignificant creatures like you to understand my godliness," and Tsubaki had the good sense to pull Blackstar back into his seat as she put her hand over his mouth to shut him up. The growing glare on Stein's glasses faded as he turned his head to glance around the room.

"Yes, as Blackstar so eloquently stated, we will be studying 'eyeballs'. Optics is crucial to many life forms. Many of the enemies you will face will rely heavily on eyesight to fight, as you all do. In order to understand yourself and your enemies, understanding how sight works is key to finding weaknesses in many enemies. Strategies can be as simple as using optical illusions to confuse enemies, or as complex as camouflaging an entire army on the move. The basis of all such tactics is optics," interested murmurs spread through the classroom, and Stein congratulated himself on presenting his personal project to his students in such an interesting way that benefitted them as well.

Of course, he would have his fun as the person creating the assignments, to be used for his own purposes. Stein continued, "In this section, you will make models of eyes, learn differences in eyes between species, understand the composition of eyes, know the composition of various eye colors, and much more. I would take notes if I were you, because at the end of the week you will be choosing a topic for a 10-page research paper about some aspect of technical optics or battle tactics using optical information. There will also be an in-class dissection, with a full lab report for homework. Is everything clear?"

The students nodded or groaned. Only Maka replied with a chipper "yes" though Stein suspected that might have more to do with Soul's arm around her shoulders than her excitement for the excess of assignments.

"Very well. You will receive the other due dates as we progress through this unit. To begin, we will start with a brief study of light. Eyes use light to function, so to understand optics, you must first understand light. Light is made up of particles of energy called photons. These photons travel together in two ways: as waves and as particles. These make up the dual nature of light-" and so the lesson began.

An hour and a half later, the bell marked the mass exodus of the students. Half the class left with question marks floating above their heads, and the other half departed immediately for the library. Just as the last students exited the room, Marie stuck her head into the room.

"Oh, Stein! Did your class just finish? How'd it go?" She asked.

"Good, thanks. Some of them even seem interested for once," he replied, not sure if he wanted to her to know the topic, in case she realized why he'd decided to teach optics. To forestall any questions she was sure to ask, he asked, "What're you doing here, Marie?"

"Looking for the teacher's lounge. I thought it was over this way…" she said, her voice distant. Stein sweat dropped.

"No… It's on the third floor, fifth hall from the nearest stairwell. You know, near the Death Room?" he quickly listed the directions, packing up his stuff.

She said distantly, "Ok, I'll head over that way,"

He sighed. "I'm heading there right now. I don't have another class for an hour and a half. When's your next class?"

She pulled out a schedule, "hmm, half an hour, it looks like. I never did understand the purpose of having staggered classes," she followed him out of the classroom and into the stairwell.

Climbing, he replied, "It's so there won't be blockages in the hallways. Plus, it helps create a schedule that keeps students in classes that fit their star level,"

"Yeah," she said, not really paying attention. She totally missed Stein's exasperated glare because she was climbing the stairs with her eyes glued to the paper in her hands. "I don't really want to teach. But I'm sure the kids will be nice," Stein snorted, but refrained from commenting.

In the teachers lounge he spread his materials over a table and settled in to grade lab reports until his next class. By the time he'd gotten a forth of the way through the stack, Marie had wandered out to go find her class and two rotations of classes had passed. It was time for him to leave for his next class, teaching the one-star meisters the basics of being a weapon-meister pair, called Partners 101. The immature students (every single student was in that class) would always giggle at the name, or shy away from resonating with their partners as if they were afraid of catching cooties. Stein groaned. It was going to be a long week.

*****PLEASE READ: Do you guys want me to write about optics? Explain how he makes the eye (though I might use a slight creative license) and the principles of light and optics? I'll happily do some research, and there'll still be plenty of other stuff, but I need to know if you guys would even read that, or just pass it over. I can just say 'he made the eye' or describe all kinds of stuff about the process. Preferences? PM me or review, please!**

I opted for longer chapters but infrequent updates, so _surprise_! (hopefully a happy and enjoyable surprise ) Enjoy, read and review! Thank you to all those who have stuck around this long, review, favorite, and follow!

So. This chapter kind of just… happened. Sorry if it was a little confusing, with the two Steins and the constant changing of verb tense! I meant to write something else entirely, but as you can see, that plan flew out the window and is probably in Uganda by now. I was inspired by two songs performed by Celtic Women: _Fields of Gold_ and _Amazing Grace. _They have nothing to do with the story, but Stein somehow came to mind, and the story kind of created itself from there. So now I have a new subplot! Requests are always welcome!


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